The Dawn of Hope
by Quarez
Summary: Natsumi Uzumaki, one of three jinchuuriki siblings. She was the Village Pariah and Forgotten Daughter to the citizens of Konoha, but to some she was a huntress, a swordswoman, perhaps even a knight. After one fateful night, the girl decided to tread upon the path less traveled by, the path to a legend. Atalanta-like!Naruto Arturia-like!Naruto FEM!Naruto Nasu-Naruto-DxD universe.
1. 1 First Awakening

**Hello readers,**

 **before I start on this, I would like to say that I write as a hobby, my readers can influence me, advise me, but will not force me. I write what I feel will bring me the most joy and what I find to be the best way to tell a story. If I'm doing it wrong, TELL ME, I want to know what so I can atleast make the experience enjoyable for everyone.**

 **Now with that grim stuff out of the way, I'll also like to say that when I write, I write with passion. A work with no passion is usually utter shit. I have written many things before, and have come to accept the fact that if at any point in time that passion is lost temporarily or permanently, it's time to stop. I have never lost my passion for a story permanently before, so rest assured that I still do think about The Dubious Moon for those people who have read it. I do plan to continue it once I get out of my procrastination stage, but will not force myself to release a chapter simply because I have to.**

 **This story has been on my mind for quite a while now, and I find that I have a lot more ideas and passion for this than my others stories at the moment, So I've decided to start it out. This is currently only a 2 way crossover between FSN and Naruto, but will evolve into a 3 way crossover into the DxD world.**

 **The story will only stay in the Narutoverse until the timeskip or during the timeskip, then we will be leaving it behind PERMANENTLY for the mixed DxD and FSN universe which I will be merging. This will NOT include a random dimension travel, but will be played out so all three universes are interconnected into one. I have a very good idea as to how I will do this, so when the time comes, tell me if you don't like it.**

 **Now this will be an alive Kushina/Minato story, but they aren't a main focus, since they won't even be mentioned much after we leave narutoverse. They are only here to set a backstage for Natsumi's (A fem naruto, because I detest harems and this is one viable way I'm going to force myself to avoid one once we get out of narutoverse) siblings. The two siblings will play an important role in the later parts of this story, so stay tuned.**

 **Something I find about most naruto fanfics with neglected naruto is that somehow naruto turns into the ultimate angst/emo lord of all time, when he has gone through the same or perhaps WORSE in the original timeline and turns out to be a cheerful and forgiving person. Naruto's forgiving and cheerful and playful personality literally defines him and his nature, his soul. If you turn him into anything else, you might aswell make an OC.**

 **Now I know that its fanfiction, you can do whatever you want, but I'm just pointing out that naruto is and always be a cheerful and forgiving person, I mean, the kid forgave Nagato an hour after he destroyed his whole village and killed someone very close to him, think about that for a second.**

 **So for the record, Naruto will NOT be an emolord in this story. He will retain a cheerful personality, he will be playful, he will be forgiving but he won't forget. He will learn from his experiences and he will adapt.**

 **CURRENT PLAN FOR TIMELINE:**

 **Naruto verse until timeskip (or after)**

 **Natsumi's adventures in various heroes' times(practically an entire arc or two's worth of what natsumi does between Naruto's time until events of FSN/DXD verse, will include natsumi's journey's during several important servants' lifetimes.)**

 **Great War (DxD verse event)**

 **Civil War (DxD event)**

 **Fate zero**

 **Beginning of Cannon DxD**

 **UBW**

 **More Cannon DxD**

 **Apocrypha (Yes, After much internal debate, I have decided to make apocrypha a part of this story. Firstly the events of apocrypha are far too interesting to pass up, including Atalanta's appearance, which I find is literally worth the thing in itself, this means that though characters are the same (Yep, I'm moving characters from being in the 4th grail war to a completely new grail war but still on the same stage). There's just far too many good interactions (*cough* artoria and mordred *cough* that could occur here that I'm not willing to pass up. I will try to make this as smooth as I possibly can. I will also try to keep it as original from the, well, original as possible.**

 **Now I'm not saying that for certainty I can get this far before running out of steam, but I'm gonna try my very best. planned stories usually are better than the winged ones, so this is the one I'll be abiding by.**

 **So without further notice, Happy reading~.**

* * *

8 YEARS AFTER KYUUBI INCIDENT

"Get the demon!"

"Get the brat before she leaves the compound!"

Several figures were shouting under the starry sky as three figures chased a smaller figure through the streets. The smaller figure, a child with bright blonde hair and three whiskers on each cheek, was panting as she turned and went into an alleyway in a hurry, not daring to look back and check if her pursuers were gone.

The child was no older than eight years, and wore a simple white shirt covered in dirt with grey pants that were in even worse condition than the shirt. Yes, the child was indeed Natsumi Uzumaki Namikaze, eldest of the Uzumaki Namikaze children.

Why was the daughter of the yondaime being chased in her own village by the villagers no less, you ask? It all started eight years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked. The yondaime managed to defeat the masked Uchiha that had reportedly controlled the Kyuubi, and managed to seal the Yin and Yang of Kyuubi's chakra inside of Menma and Mito Uzumaki Namikaze, the second son and youngest daughter of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, two of the three triplets' born on the day along with Natsumi.

As the consciousness was linked to the Yin and the Yang, it meant the splitting of the soul would be necessary, a feat that could only be performed by the Shinigami himself, ensuring Minato's death during the sealing, which prompted him to seal the soul and consciousness of the Kyuubi into his remaining daughter, Natsumi Uzumaki Namikaze

Yet when he finished the sealing, his life was not taken as a price. He didn't not understand how, nor didn't anyone else, yet it did happen.

The two siblings were regarded as heroes in the leaf, being burdened with such corrupt chakra. The treatment was the complete opposite for Natsumi, who many believed to be the Kyuubi in human form. Slurs and insults, beatings and stabbing were commonplace for Natsumi as the village vented on her throughout the years. To the village, the girl didn't have the burden of the poisonous chakra like her siblings, whilst housing the evil demon, Kyuubi itself. If people were to dig further, it would be pretty clear exactly who was in control of the frail body, but to the village that had lost so much in a single night, such thoughts passed by them without even registering in their heads.

For the first two years of her life, it was manageable for Natsumi. Once she started becoming aware of her surroundings, it was clear that her parents were spending far more time with his siblings than her. Was she jealous? no. Was she confused? Yes. For another year, she spent her life in her siblings' shadows, as they slowly took up their parents' time. The year after that, she learned about the Kyuubi and jinchuuiriki after overhearing her parents talking about what they would do in regards to containing the volatile chakra held in her two siblings

Though it did hurt to know that such was the case, she accepted it knowing that her siblings needed the attention, yet over time it slowly became worse.

The only people who talked to her somewhat were Itachi, Jiraiya, Sasuke (who was probably the only person she could call a 'friend') and Mikoto Uchiha, who had provided her with shelter and food after the incident when she turned seven and a half.

After re-updating the blood-seals on the Namikaze Estate, her parents _forgot_ to register her inside the seal, which led to a very nasty backlash in the form of being thrown by an invisible force - . , impaling her through the shoulder when she tried to enter the compound at night. Though the remnants of the Kyuubi Chakra healed her in about half an hour, it was possibly the worst experience in her life, both physically and mentally.

She knew that bringing it up to anyone would be a _bad_ idea. If she wasn't bulldozed by the council about how her true colours were showing and that she wasn't a true Namikaze since she was rejected by the seal, only the Kyuubi, she would only be brought back to the family through guilt, wthich she did not need for now.

Instead, she stayed in a forest that she found to the west of Konoha's walls, only a few hundred meters out. It was close enough to get food from her friends at the Uchiha (which by divine luck, the Uchiha Compound is located on the edge of Konoha.)

It had been half a year since then, she learned to fish by herself to survive most of the time, but still went to Konoha once a week to get supplies, and also to meet Itachi, Mikoto and Sasuke. The Namikaze's hadn't noticed her absence for the time, which was surprising even to her, who had bet that it would be a few months before she was found. It didn't matter to her, as the longer they were ignorant, the better, as she enjoyed the quiet life outside the city.

The young girl leapt over a building with the limited chakra control she developed over the last half year to get around the forest. Using the moment of confusion displayed by the villagers, she then dived towards the small hole she used to get in and out of the Konoha walls undetected. Ignoring the dirt clinging onto her hunting gear that was fashioned by Mikoto after hearing her predicament, she grabbed the bag of food that was given to her by her surrogate mother during the visit and leapt outside of Konoha's boundaries and into the forest.

Her side ached from the village ambush that had probably left a rib or two broken, but she went on whilst the Kyuubi fixed the wound. She only managed to run for a minute before having to stop for a break due to her condition. Lying next to a tree, she laid down the bag next to her before starting to tend to the wound. Her palms glowed pale green whilst she applied it to her side. She flinched from the contact, but forcefully held her hand to keep it from moving. Numerous incidents and injuries from attempting to use chakra in the forest had given her experience in the medical techniques. Though very basic and rough, it did help lessen the pain.

The blissful moment under the moon only lasted a minute as she heard the leaves ruffling in front of her. Shortly after, a large boar double her size stepped out of the shadows with bloodthirsty eyes. It was already clear that this was a mutated being, animals that harnessed the chakra in the air. They were said to be much larger and more fierce than normal animals, and from the looks she was getting from the boar, the talks were true.

Fear coursed through her body as she recognised her chance of survival- practically impossible. Yes, she could utilise chakra to a certain extent, but mutated beasts were said to be on par with jonins, whilst she could only compare to a fresh academy graduate even with her experience. Even if she was a prodigy, it was nigh impossible to skip more than 5 years in her education, and that was not including her physical capabilities with her current body.

She reached for the makeshift hunting bow on her back that she was familiar with. The Uchihas and tried to teach her basic hunting skills with kunai and shurikens, but in the end it as revealed that she was most apt for the bow out of all long ranged weaponry. An uncommon weapon in the elemental nations, seeing that shurikens and kunai were far more versatile and easier to carry. Though it lacked the power a bow could put out, it was more than enough to slit throats.

In the end, she had come to rely on the bow due its cheap cost to both create and sustain along with arrows compared to the expensive metal kunais that she would have to continuously purchase after hunts.

Jumping onto a nearby tree, she nocked an arrow out of desperation before loading her upper body with chakra to allow her to draw the bow, before firing it at the boar. Though it hit dead center right in between the boar's eyes, the arrow simply bounced off the skin as if it were metal.

seeing that the attack had no effect, dread began to seep into her mind. There was no way she could outrun a mutated beast, her attacks had no effect whilst she had a wound that was still regenerating, albeit not very well due to her constant movement.

Seeing an opportunity, the titanic boar surged forwards and sped towards the tree she was on with a blur. She couldn't even register the movement before pain erupted through her body as she was sent flying backwards before colliding with another tree. She gasped for breathe before clutching her previous wound that had just reopened.

 _'damn, I'm losing too much blood'_ She thought as she clutched her bow before drawing a final arrow and aiming it at the direction which she came from in anticipation of the boar, though she knew that it would do nothing. With a roar, the boar emerged from the woods with the same red eyes thirsting for blood.

Seeing those eyes, something awakened within her, something familiar.

Strength, familiar strength that was yet not familiar.

What was it? Was it even the correct time to ponder on such thoughts? She didn't know, but the familiar power was already surging through her body. Why did those eyes bring back memories, memories that she possibly couldn't have?

She couldn't help but staring at those blood red eyes, as if she were infatuated with it. Though unknown to her, her two golden bangs were slowly turning a light emerald whilst her ocean blue eyes were filling with a foreign green glint, eventually stopping once it turned to turquoise. A memory played from deep within her mind, though it felt more like a vision.

 _In the vast plains, a large boar roared as armies of men were trampled, arrows flew yet not one slew the beast as they harmlessly fell to the floor, failing to injure the beast._

 _"Damn, Artemis must've been either really pissed or drunk to send that thing down" A young blond said in exasperation._

 _"Don't insult Lady Artemis in my presence boy" A female voice cried whilst raining arrows upon the beast with her large black longbow. The bow exuded a presence unlike any other meager bow that the men were holding, as if it were blessed by God itself._

 _The teen had long flaxen hair whilst her two bangs were a unique shade of green. Her outfit was that of a huntress, leaving much room for flexibility whilst a knife was holstered at her side, though was not openly visible. Natsumi could swear that she had never met her before, yet deep in her soul she was screaming- no, longing for her, as if she was as familiar as family._

 _"Not the time now, any ideas on how to take that thing down?" The blond asked again._

 _"... Yes, It probably won't kill it, but it will be good enough. I can only use one of mother's two more destructive abilities, but it should be able to slow it down." She replied after some hesitation._

 _"Then do it quick, the more time we waste the more people are left dead."_

 _"-Uh 'Anta? You might want to hurry up, the oversized pig is looking our way!" Another man with green hair shouted from a distance._

 _The huntress didn't reply as she pulled the bowstring as far back as she could without changing her posture. Slowly, she aimed it towards the sky in the direction of the boar. Sparks flew from the tip of the arrow as it was released._

 _"[_ _ **Phoebus Catastrophe: Complaint Message on the Arrow]**_ _" She whispered. The chant was completely missed by the onlookers, but for some reason she heard it as if it were clear as day._

The vision suddenly ended as she was back at Konoha's forest, laying injured in front of the boar with a feeble arrow nocked.

The bow suddenly exploded in light as it began to morph into a larger, yet similar shape, blinding the boar temporarily.

As the light faded, a pure white longbow with mysterious gold markings appeared in her hand. Though it was nearly twice her size, it still felt comfortable in her grip. The bow was missing the markings of the Sun and the Moon, but in its place were two obscure marks resembling a fox.

Without questioning the change, she began to pull on the bowstring as the boar began to break out of its stupor. Letting out a furious roar, it began to charge in her direction.

Though she pulled on the bowstring, it didn't go far. In fact, she could only pull around 10% or perhaps less, yet she felt it would be enough. Releasing the bowstring, she let the arrow fly.

The boar tilted its head in confusion at the apparent lack of strength Natsumi put in the attack even though it was her last chance. She hadn't even pulled the bowstring far enough for an arrow to pierce paper.

Yet the arrow was released with a shockwave. The wind howled as the arrow pierced through the air and shot towards the boar like a bullet. It didn't even have time to react as the arrow pierced its skull and threw the boar over 20m back, destroying all trees and debris along the way.

As the smoke cleared for Natsumi, she witnessed the destruction she had caused with wide eyes. Before she could think further, The headache from earlier resumed as she fell to the ground screaming. The emerald strands in her twin bangs multiplied as it rapidly took over the entirety of her front face. Though she wouldn't find out for another day, her now turquoise eyes turned a slightly greener shade whilst her original smooth golden hair grew down to her waist.

 _'I'm alive...'_

With that final thought, she lost consciousness.

* * *

 **HELLO Readers**

 **Did you enjoy the chapter? Anything you didn't like or like? please leave a review and tell me! But lets clear up a few things before things get too confusing.**

 **If you haven't realised yet, the short memory she played is that of the Calydonian boar's rampage and the Argonaut's involvement, along with the famous arrow from Atalanta that struck the boar.**

 **FIRST OFF-**

 **No, this is not a Natsumi/Naruto becomes Atalanta story. I will not spoil it now, but Natsumi is not a Atalanta reincarnation or takeover, but is a separate entity herself. Her strong resemblance to Atalanta and the vision she saw of the battle is not because of some link she has to Atalanta, she saw all of it for another reason, all to be revealed in the (hopefully) Second part of overall story after we are done with narutoverse.**

 **Natsumi's bow being different from Tauropolos is the first sign of that, they are not the same people nor spiritually linked, they are completely different people and beings, but are connected in a way that may surprise you when you find out.**

 **Secondly, Atalanta's mother is not mentioned, so I'm taking alot of liberty with that, I may be giving away too much information and people are probs already putting two and two together, but for those who haven't, stay tuned~**

 **Thirdly, this will not be the only *awakening* ish that she will go through, in the next few chapters, the second and final one will occur. The characters section of this story should give you an idea to who.**

 **And since it might get confusing, I'll simply put it out now.**

 **I am not going to pull the 'dragged into another world' scenario. That's plain lazy way to do a crossover, no.**

 **I will be attempting to join all three universes into a single comprehensive universe. DxD and Fate are VERY compatible worlds, so that isn't too hard, the only hard part is the narutoverse, and I have a good idea on how I can do this. If you want to know, PM me, and I'll tell. I'd rather not spoil for casual readers.**

 **Stay tuned~**


	2. 2 The Mindscape

**Hello readers, welcome to the casual infodump chapter which is nigh inevitable seeing that a lot was going to be needed to explained early on to avoid much confusion, and unfortunately, this is the most harmless way to do it- get alot of the groundwork out, meaning I can focus on the actual story from here on out since most of the annoying explanation is out of the way so I don't have to reiterate later on.**

 **Firstly, I wanted to say that whilst I enjoy praises, I also enjoy good criticism that actually points things out so that I can improve my story. If you're going to go post 'this is shit' and leave it at that from a guest account, that's gonna be one review deleted because 1- it weakens my passion, and 2- doesn't help me improve and most importantly, 3- mostly likely a spam.**

 **I don't mind guest reviews, but if you're going to criticize the story, tell me where it went wrong for you, did you not like the characters? grammar issues? e.t.c**

 **Now that's out of the way, someone asked about pairings. At the moment, I'm not sure. I've planned for two relationships that Natsumi can have, the first will be a simple first relationship, and like most relationships, will fall apart at some point (something which annoyingly doesn't occur enough in fanfiction, first loves don't usually last, just saying)**

 **But ofcourse that won't happen for a while, at the very least until the Great War or Civil War DxD arcs**

 **ShirouxNatsumi is debatable, but I already got someone for Shirou (pre obvious) so not likely.**

 **But without further announcements, enjoy~**

* * *

She found herself in a forest, but unlike the one she was in before. Here, the twilight seemed unending as the grass laid still as if dead. The tall trees lacked the liveliness that she felt when she used to dance through Konoha's forests whilst the canopy only let in a slimmer of sunshine.

"What the..." She murmured.

The whole place seemed dead, almost haunting, could animals even survive in such a dreadful place?

" **I see that you have finally decided to grace me with your presence, Kit."** A voice echoed through the forest. She was instantly on guard and reached for the bow that was usually strung on her back, but to her surprise all she felt was empty space. Her hunting knife was also missing, leaving her defenseless.

" **Don't be so alarmed, we are within your mindscape, we are only here to talk."** The voice called again, this time clearer. She could make it out as female, but was far too deep for a human.

"Show yourself, then we talk." She said, attempting to stay calm. She knew what a mindscape was as Kushina had once said something about where the Kyuubi's chakra would manifest itself. If this was the case, then it meant that there was only one answer as to who the mysterious entity was.

 **"By the look on your face, you seem to have figured it out."** The owner of the voice then stepped out.

A woman walked out from the woods to her side. A miko outfit covered her body whilst her emerald green hair flowed down to her waist with her slitted turquoise eyes staring right into her own. Her most peculiar features included the two animal ears that sprouted from her head and the nine tails that calmly swayed behind her. She also noted the cuffs that held the woman's hands together.

Seeing the blank look on her face, the woman decided to talk first.

" **Yes, I am what you know as the Kyuubi, though the old man gave me the name 'Kurama' when he created us, though he just used to call me Kura, do feel free to do so, kits need someone to look up to"** She said with a chuckle, her eyes unwavering.

After a few moments of staring at the emerald haired woman with wide eyes, she regained her senses.

" **Quite the mindscape you have, don't you think? A forest does define you very well, though your experiences in life seem to have dulled its colour."**

"Why are you so familiar, shouldn't you be trying to break out of this seal, and is the Kyuubi really female?" She asked with caution. Who knows what the tailed beast would do if angered.

" **Curious one aren't you? Though I don't blame you, not everyone gets to meet with my soul."** She seemed distant for a moment before recovering herself.

 **"First of all, I don't technically have a gender, we tailed beasts are simply mass constructs of chakra created by the Rikudou Sennin using the Banbutsu Sozo no Jutsu."** She explained, pausing to allow the young girl to take in what was just said.

 **"However, life cannot be created without a soul, therefore we nine tailed beasts were formed with the soul of a long dead human within us. This form is simply what my soul reflects, who the soul once was.**

 **"And also, I'm not attempting to break out because for one it would be meaningless due to the power of the seal, and for two I wouldn't want to harm the only family I have. Though I should also mention that though I do desire freedom, I don't have the power to do anything once I do get out, my chakra is still sealed within your siblings and escaping would simply give me a free pass to the shinigami."** She sighed, shuddering at the last thought.

"Eh?" Natsumi's mind went blank for a moment, trying to comprehend what the Kyuubi had just called her. "Family?"

As if remembering something, the woman eyes widened for a moment before smiling lightly. She pointed at the small lake a few steps away, telling her to go see for herself.

Seeing that no harm could be done, she listened and walked towards the riverbed. The water was still whilst no sign of life could be seen within, but the reflection was still clear. She gasped.

She saw herself, but different. Emerald green hair covered her front face whilst familiar turquoise eyes holding a beastly glint stared back at her. As she looked at her reflection, she also registered the slight weight on her head, and with it also noticed that her remaining bright namikaze yellow hair now flowed down to her waist much like the Kyuubi.

What was even more noticeable were the two fox ears and nine swishing tails

"W-what happened to me." She slowly managed to get out as she played with her emerald locks to confirm if they were real.

" **A Soulmerge, the act of combining two existing souls. Though technically a taboo and forgotten, since it requires the stealing of a soul, our case is one of a kind and an exception since no sacrifice is required."** She explained with no visible change in expression.

"So our souls are currently merged?" She asked, uncertain to how she should be feeling to know that she shared a soul with the Kyuubi.

" **No, we're only halfway there. There's still the essence of our original souls remaining, meaning that there are currently three souls housed inside you, the leftover of our two original souls and the third which is the combination of the two."**

"So how do we complete it?" She asked again without much thought, not sure if she even wanted to, though her instincts told her that there would be consequences if the state of her body was left as such."

 **"The changes to your body occurred due to the partial merge since you contain my essence within your soul. If we don't complete the merge, very simply put you will gain a very, very bad and uncontrollable split personality issue."** She continued without giving the panicking child a chance to voice her opinion.

 **"Which is why we need you to complete the merge soon, though I warn you that something similar to this will occur. There will be more noticeable changes afterwards and your body structure should also change to that of a chakra structure like mine, though you should still function like a human."** The tone she used wasn't exactly reassuring, but it did carry the hint that she had no other choice.

 **"I'll tell you now, but since the moment you completed the partial merge during that fight with the boar, you became one of my own, you are currently closer to me than your parents since I singlehandedly make up half your structure, which is why to me, you are precious, perhaps even more so than my fellow siblings."**

Natsumi could tell that the Kyuubi was genuinely honest with the statement, though understandable. She (it was easier to refer to as a she than an it) had lived for eons without the anything she could relate to, with the closest connections she possessed being the other tailed beasts even though they were wholly different. If such a being were to suddenly gain something that righteously called a family, then it would naturally cling to it.

Also not mentioning the protected nature of Kitsune towards its children.

Wait-

Children?

"T-then-" She began before gulping.

 **"Hmm?"**

 **"** Am I technically your child?"

Silence permeated through the forest as the Kyuubi's eyes widened. She stared at her with mouths agape and startled eyes. It was only broken after a hard minute.

" **Yes... If you put it like that, then I guess I am... A parent, huh?"** The Kyuubi pondered as she repeated the world 'parent' several times to herself as if she were foreign to the concept itself.

 **"Very interesting... family we may be now, but don't bother addressing me as a parent, the Soul merge means that I am also technically half of you, so we are more of siblings than anything really."**

 _Siblings?_ Natsumi thought as she looked up towards the sky. She hadn't really interacted with Mito and Menma since she had started living in the forest, so she never really knew what it was like to have siblings. But she was lonely, and the thought of having someone accompanying her throughout her life no matter where she was elated her. A small smile graced her lips as she looked back down towards the confused Kyuubi who was still trying to comprehend the type of relationship the two now shared.

" **Anyways, let's get onto more of the practical things. The merge affects everything that you were in immediate contact with, so you may find that your clothes, knife, bow and quiver have been 'slightly' modified as they are now part of who you are."**

"A part of me?" she questioned, interrupting the Kyuubi mid sentence, completely forgetting exactly who she was talking to. She realised the mistake a moment later.

"S-sorry for the interruption- won't happen again'ttebayo!" She shouted, tripping over her own words. As she heard heard the sound of laughter, she lifed her head in confusion. A laughing Kyuubi met her sight.

" **hehe... dattebayo is it? so similar to Kushina."** If the Kyuubi was expecting a negative reaction from Natsumi, then she was sorely mistaken as the young girl simply nodded in acceptance.

 **"Anyway, as I was saying, anything that was directly on you at the time including your hunting gear and clothes, bow, quiver and knife are now directly a part of your soul. They can only be worn or wielded by you and you alone. If they are destroyed, they will simply rebuild themselves and are all special in their own rights.**

 **"The effects usually depends on the strength of the souls involved, and a few thousand years ago when Soul Merges were still in practice, two regular civilian souls could result in turning a chipped blade into a fine masterpiece.**

 **"You and me however, are anything but regular civilians. With the soul of an Uzumaki and mine, a tailed beast's, you can expect something quite phenomenal, you've already seen the capabilities of that bow of yours."**

She nodded. Indeed, a small tug on the bowstring resulted in destruction equal to B-rank techniques, who knew what it could do once she could utilize it fully.

" **I warn you, as you are now you won't be able to even pull that bow properly, but it should still be a major boost from what you were previously using. I have no idea what your other gear are capable of, that's for you to find out. Don't be alarmed if your clothes have changed, they now reflect your soul, though I guess I should congratulate you as you finally have something other than those makeshift clothes those humans made for you."**

 **"** Hey! Mikoto made those clothes you know!" Natsumi blurted out, not even bothering to be respectful.

 **"hahaha, very interesting Kit you are, or perhaps sister now? Meh, Kit is easier. Anyways, its time you wake up or the food from yesterday might go bad, don't want the Uchiha woman's cooking to go to waste, do you now?"** He teased.

' _Right, Mikoto gave me some food last night, completely forgot'_ She thought in embarrassment. With that, her consciousness started to fade as she disappeared from the mindscape, leaving the Kyuubi to herself.

" **Why did that memory trigger an awakening?"** She asked whilst looking towards a certain tree, where a figure could be seen sitting on a branch far high up.

"don't know, she told me that the memory apparently made her proud of me, so I thought that her soul would recognise the event even though it is technically from the future." The figure, clearly female, said. Though not much could be made out of the figure due to the shadow overlapping her, the Kyuubi could make out two animal ears, a large black longbow strapped to the figure's back and a... cat tail?

" **The future, you say?"** The Kyuubi asked in bewilderment. All the tailed beast knew was that the figure had appeared in Natsumi's mindscape during the boar attack and forcibly inserted one of her memories into Natsumi's mind. She did not by any means expect this to be a visitor from the future.

"Indeed, though I can't tell you too much since that would be beyond what the laws of existence forbid me. All I will say is that a certain annoying and troll of a powerful being decided to send me to this certain universe temporarily since apparently Mo- I mean, Natsumi wouldn't be able to complete an awakening by herself in this universe." The figure muttered something about an annoying dead apostle making fun of her afterward.

The Kyuubi raised an eyebrow at how simple the figure made dimensional travel seem, if she remembered correctly, Kaguya was the only one capable of such a feat, this 'troll' person must be a very powerful being.

" **I see, then I won't ask, though I see that your presence is disappearing, I'm guessing this has something to do with this 'troll' you are talking about?"**

"Ah, yes, the wretched male said that I wouldn't be able to remain long after interfering with another dimension's events... So I guess I'll be going now."

Just then, a flicker of light entered through the leaf canopy and onto the figure's face, revealing it. The Kyuubi gasped as she stared at the briefly revealed face with wide eyes. Emerald bangs with the majority of the hair being a bright flaxen shade. In fact, her appearance could be said to be similar to Natsumi's current appearance- too similar for comfort.

"Well it certainly was a good experience seeing how she used to look, but this is goodbye, do look after her aunt!" The teen cried as she was swiftly swallowed by a wormhole, much like a kamui.

The Kyuubi blinked.

and again.

and again.

and again.

and finally, she regained a small portion of her thought processes, enough to think.

" **AUNT?! WHAT IN TH- oh..."** Then realisation hit her. A small chuckle then rapidly evolved into uncontrollable laughter.

" **AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, very interesting indeed!"**

Though the events would be unknown to Natsumi for a long, long time.

* * *

 **And that's the end of the second chapter.**

 **Did you like it, did you not? put it in the reviews (with hopefully reasons if you didn't so I can make the experience enjoyable for others.)**

 **The Kyuubi is a very solitary being, very prideful, but in the end is still a kitsune and values bond. Though she may not have the broken amount of chakra she usually possesses, she still has that powerful soul which Mito and Menma don't have. With the lack of chakra, a big part of the Kyuubi's pride is gone, so in accordance I've toned that down a bit. Since Natsumi is currently by all means literally related to her, she becomes protective of her. If you really think about it, the tailed beasts are one of a kind, they have nobody that cares about them on a familial level, and they really can't relate to anyone since they are so one of a kind. Now that the Kyuubi, for the first time since its eons of existence, has someone who she can call a family member, she will latch onto it. Tell me if you don't like the characterisation, If its overwhelmingly negative or unliked, I will shift the personality slightly to fit what the Kyuubi originally was.**

 **I've also changed the mindscape from a sewer to a twilight forest. Since she has had different experiences to cannon, I find that she should have a different mindscape aswell since its supposed to reflect upon the person. Being a huntress, a forest is a must, whilst her experiences in her short life turn it into a haunting twilight forest.**

 **Next Chapter: Natsumi wakes up, equipment check, meeting with the Uchihas**


	3. 3 The Uchihas and a Troll

**Greetings readers, welcome to another chapters.**

 **I have fixed some errors from previous chapters, one major one being that a person talking to Atalanta wasn't Achilles, but Peleus, a mistake on my part.**

 **some might say I'm giving away too much early, in this episode a reveal aswell, but as of right now I believe that atleast giving out some implications early is better than dumping random event such on the readers heads during the middle of the story to explain everything. With this, now some future events have a basis, and reader should know what to expect on a vague level instead of having to deal with an information overload later**

 **Other than that, I hope you do enjoy this chapter~**

* * *

As dawn arrived, trickles of light flashed from the horizon. In the forests of Konoha, there laid a large boar-dead, impaled on a boulder by an arrow through the skull. A trail of destroyed trees and debris from the dead being lead to a young, unconscious child that was no older than eight.

Unlike her skin and hair covered in dirt, her clothes were as clean as they could be. A battle dress as black as the night sky covered her body, with a short skirt kept at a length that wouldn't interfere with movement. Thigh high socks that also acted as a shoe covered the majority of her legs whilst dark, claw like gloves covered her hands. The socks, whilst seemingly flexible, were as hard as metal, acting like armour whilst avoiding discomfort for the wearer.

The skirt also accommodated the nine tails that sprouted from the girl's back whilst two fox ears sprouted from the girl's hair.

A large emerald green symbol of a fox's face adorned the center of the dress, the same colour as the girl's bangs. The symbol only contained straight lines, primarily triangles and roughly depicted a grinning fox. In the two eye sockets were two blood red dots resembling eyes that seemed to glow in the dark. (Think about Atalanta's gear, but black. No Artemis's symbol, but a fox, and also themed completely black and green.)

Under the skirt was a short curved dagger which, unlike her attire, was pure white including the handle and base. A red gem was imbedded in the hilt whilst the blade glistened under the sun's light.

Just out of her reach was a white longbow with gold markings. Unlike the day before, it was now slightly smaller to allow the young girl to at least wield properly. At the two ends of the bow were marks identical to the one on the center of the girl's dress, that of a fox.

The girl stirred as light reached her eyes. As she woke, a groan escaped her lips, yet she still stood. Letting out a yawn, she gasped as she saw the gloves on her hand. Suddenly remembering the conversation she had with the Kyuubi, she looked at the ground to find the bow she had used the day before to slay the beast.

"So it was all real... not a dream... alright, let's see what changed then." She muttered to no one in particular."

She grabbed the bow and decided to head towards the nearest lake which was only a few minutes away if she kept at a fast pace, though not before fawning over the new bow that was now in her possession. To her surprise, she found herself noticeably faster and less tired than usual. Though she didn't know what had caused it, she assumed that it had something to do with the clothes that she now donned.

Reaching the lake, she hesitantly looked down.

There she stood, in all her glory, stunning new gear that she could never have even dreamed to obtain with her current circumstances. With the bow strapped to her back, she looked _Intimidating,_ Even with the figure of an eight year old child, her current attire literally oozed serenity. Without her noticing, tears began to form as she gulped.

For all her life, she had never had anything she could truly be proud to call her _own_. Her old mundane hunting gear, bow and knife were all gifted to her by the Uchiha, namely Mikoto and Itachi. Though she treasured them as they were given to her by her surrogate family, she was never proud of having them. They reminded her of her unfortunate predicament and they reminded her of the pitiful looks her surrogate mother and brother gave her when she received the gear.

But here now she stood, with one of a kind gear and weapons that she could proudly call her own, and hers only. She may not be a part of the Uzumaki-Namikaze household at the moment, but at heart she was still an Uzumaki, and she had the Uzumaki pride.

silence ensued for several minutes as she collected herself. After wiping away the tears, she took out the food that had already gone cold and began to heat it using a basic **Katon** technique before beginning to eat. Though she hadn't noticed due to the events that had transpired from yesterday, she was practically starving.

What surprised her was how sensitive her smell was to the food that was in front of her. With it, she also noticed how clear the sound of the running water in the lake was.

 _'Probably effects of the Soul-merge, These ears can't be there just for decoration, meaning that my sense of smell is also probably the same.'_ She deduced before indulging in the meal.

 _ **one hour later**_

A lone dear appeared from the nearby bush and cautiously moved over to the riverside to drink, seemingly not noticing her presence.

 _'A good time to test out the bow'_ She thought as she steadied herself and reached from an arrow from her quiver, only to find something foreign. She then realised that her quiver had also changed slightly, a sleek black quiver that blended in with her clothes. The arrows inside were of the same kind, but had a blood red tip similar to that of the fox symbol's eyes.

As she held the arrow in her hands, she strengthened her grip with chakra to crush it to feel the material, only to find it dissolving into nothingness upon snapping along with slight weight being added to her back. To her surprise, she found that the dissolved arrow had once again made it back to her quiver alongside her arrows.

"W-wha-"

 _"_ _ **Those bows are chakra constructs like me Kit, they reform when they are broken. Quite the useful thing, once they're broken they immediately reform in your quiver, meaning that technically you have an infinite amount of arrows."**_ A voice in her head said calmly.

"Kyuubi!?" She exclaimed before covering her mouth with her hand in a hurry after noticing that she almost startled the deer.

 _ **"Calm down Kit, just talk inside your head, I can still hear you."**_

 _"R-right, so you can hear and talk to me?"_

 _ **"Yes, I am in your head you know. Originally I couldn't due to the seal, but since 'that' happened yesterday, we are connected in more ways than one. I am directly talking to you through your, or should I say, our soul instead of through your mindscape.**_

 _ **"Anyways, as I was saying, those arrows are chakra structures, they don't have a definitive shape, and can be formed into anything through the use of chakra reforma-"**_

 _ **"**_ _Speak in a language I can understand!"_

 _ **"Just think of it as having infinite arrows"**_ the Kyuubi replied with an audible sweatdrop at Natsumi's lack of comprehension skills in anything that required more brainpower than absolutely necessary.

" _Could've just said that first."_

 _ **"I simply thought you would appreciate the insight of a being as great as I"**_ Natsumi could imagine the Kyuubi huffing with pride.

 _"Doesn't matter! All I need to know is that it's arrows that don't run out'ttebayo!"_

 _ **"Riiiiiiight, call on me when you actually require my intellect, I'll be having a nap"**_ And with that, the voice faded into nothingness and silence permeated through the air-with the exception of the running water next to her.

Nocking an arrow, she attempted to pull the bowstring, only to find it as stiff as steel. Pouring more chakra into her upper body, she finally managed to move it, albeit only about 15%, hardly much improvement from last night.

Remembering the destruction caused from last time, hesitantly retracted some of the chakra before firing the bow. Her instincts from using her old bow told her that the arrow wouldn't even fly a meter out with how far she drew the bow, but ignoring all possible logic, the arrow flew out such force that it blew her back slightly as she was not expecting a recoil. The deer, however, was not lucky enough to only be blown back.

The arrow pierced straight through the skull, decapitating the creature from the force and impaling the head straight on a boulder, which evidently have cracks sprouting from the arrow's origin. A moment later, the arrow dissipated and reformed within her quiver, allowing the head to roll down onto the ground.

The rest of the animal's body spasmed as a gurgling sound could be heard from where the head was ripped off.

Even though she had lived through hunting, she was at heart still an eight year old girl, and couldn't help but gag slightly at the brutal scene in front of her. Hearing the cries of bird from ahead, she could tell that other predators had sensed the blood and were coming to investigate. Without wasting a moment, she began to retreat towards the Konoha walls, specifically the Uchiha compound.

She didn't know if they would recognise her with her current appearance, but the tails and ear should be able to convince atleast Itachi and Uchiha that she was still Natsumi.

Arriving at the border, she carefully maneuvered around the rooftops to avoid being spotted by the citizens. Even if they were of Uchiha who had given her shelter, she couldn't trust every single one of them to keep it to themselves. Arriving at the head of clan's household building, she swiftly reached to one of the trap doors on the roof that she often used to get inside the house. Taking a deep breath, she jumped in and landed with a thud in one of the spare rooms used for storage. The trapdoor was also rigged with a seal that automatically informed others of her arrival

Almost immediately, she could feel cold steel touching her neck, drawing blood slightly as her fox ears picked up the sound of footsteps making its way to her location.

She could feel the coldness in the tone of the owner of the blade as he spoke.

"Who the hell are you?"

* * *

As soon as Fugaku felt a presence enter through the trapdoor with a chakra signal different to Natsumi's, Fugaku immediately headed for the storage room with his blade drawn. It was common tactic for shinobi to enter through spare entrances when attempting assassination, and for all he knew this intruder could be after his family. taking a kunai from his back pocket that he kept for emergencies, he silently shunshin'd into the room and held the assailant with the kunai by the throat.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked before looking down towards the intruder, and to his surprise he found a young girl. Namikaze yellow hair unkempt hair reached the figure's waist, whilst emerald green hair decorated the front of her face along with her two bangs.

A black battle dress unlike any he had ever seen before covered her whole body, whilst a pure white longbow that practically radiated power was strapped to her back. Even the arrows on the pure black quiver on her back felt strange for some reason.

Black claw like gloves covered her hands, exuding a sensation of wilderness. What was strangest of all were her eyes- a beautiful turquoise in colour, staring at him with a beastly glint. It was familiar, though a different colour, it was still yet very similar to the eyes of the misfortunate yet cheerful girl that had basically become a part of his family.

What didn't escape his gaze were the two animal-like ears and nine gold fox tails that sprouted from her back. 'Kyuubi' was his first thought, but who was foolish enough to take on such an appearance in Konoha of all places? He could tell that it wasn't a henge from the lack of chakra exuding from them.

Wait, but that's if the girl had a choice at all, perhaps this is how she truly looked like?

"You have five seconds before you find your head misplaced, starting now." He said in hopes of intimidating the young girl. It certainly felt wrong to threaten a child, but this was the most effective way to gather information. For all he knew the girl could've been raised be nuke-nin as a specialised assassin. He could tell that it was working from the girl's breathing pattern.

Before she could speak however, Mikoto, Sasuke and Itachi came running, most likely suspicious of Fugaku's sudden departure from dinner.

"Fugaku, what ar- Natsumi?" His wife began questioning him before looking over in surprise at the girl he was restraining.

"uhh, hi?" The girl said with uncertainty as she scratched her hair whilst letting out an awkward chuckle. Now THAT gesture was VERY Natsumi-like, but he couldn't say for sure yet.

"Natsumi? No, prove you are her!" He asked with a sharp edge, resulting in his wife stabbing needles into the back of his head with her disapproving gaze. No one could blame him for his caution though. If it weren't for the three whiskers on each cheek, he would have probably killed the girl the moment she stepped into the building.

"Hey! Just because I may have changed a little doesn't mean you can go on forgetting me'ttebayo!"

 _'''Yep, definitely Natsumi'''_ The four Uchihas thought with a sweatdrop each. The two adults and Itachi immediately went into analysis mode and started forming their own bizarre theories on how such a change could've occurred overnight whilst Sasuke snuck up behind her and jumped on one of her tails.

"Kya!" with a squeal, the tail he had grabbed literally flung the boy across the room and into the wall. Fugaku raised an eyebrow at her reaction. _'well there goes the theory that this is an illusion'_ he thought.

"What was that for!" She shouted across the room.

"I was just checking if those tails were real or not!" He yelled back whilst rubbing the backside of his head where he had landed on, seemingly unaware of Itachi's snickering.

meanwhile Natsumi was trying to figure out how she had just done that.

 _ **"You can thank me for that one."**_ A familiar voice sounded.

 _"You did that?"_ she asked mentally.

 _ **"Who else would? Those are technically my tails too you know, I don't like people touching them without permission."**_ He huffed.

Whilst Sasuke was propping himself back up, Fugaku decided to start talking first.

"So mind explaining how... This... occurred in a span of less than 24 hours?" He asked

"12." Mikoto corrected.

"12." Fugaku repeated.

"Before we start, can we sit down?" She asked whilst pointing at the kunai that was still held at her throat. Remembering that he was still holding her hostage technically, Fugaku withdrew the kunai swiftly and chuckled awkwardly whilst rubbing his head, avoiding his wife's gaze that promised pain upon noticing the trickle of blood that was dripping from Natsumi's neck. What made it even more terrifying was the innocent smile she wore whilst letting out the bloodlust, causing even Itachi to back away slightly.

"Aaany ways, why don't we go take this over to the dining room. Sasuke, go fetch the sake please, I feel like we need a couple barrels to get through this." He promptly fled towards the dining room to avoid being scrutinised by his wife any further, followed by Itachi and Sasuke who had went the opposite direction to the basement to fetch the sake. Mikoto then headed towards the exit to the room, prompting Natsumi to follow her as she went.

As they gathered around the table, Natsumi decided to begin.

"So it started after I left last night."

"So... to put it simply, you were injured due to the mob, ended up running into a mutated beast, partially completed a Soul-merge which is a forbidden art that even the Uchiha Library has very little information on, not to mention you merged with the Kyuubi itself, but the now you are technically one with the Kyuubi to a certain scale, have new gear and weapons which seem literally out of the world, AND ON TOP OF THAT the Kyuubi also turns out to be a nice person?" Fugaku asked in deadpan, though Natsumi could tell that there was a hint of both amusement and disbelief in his voice.

"Essentially." She replied.

"Itachi, get me one more bottle." He asked as Itachi complied. Throughout her small tale, the man had already confused three bottles, now moving onto his forth. For the first time, Mikoto seemed to not mind his drinking habit.

"By any chance does the Kyuubi know exactly who was controlling him?" He asked hopefully.

 _ **"No... The man was wearing a mask, so I couldn't see who he was. Though the bastard's mangekyou was three stretched triangles evenly spcaed around the pupil that each curve at the top around the eye."**_ Kyuubi spoke to Natsumi mentally. Though she didn't approve of his dislike for the Uchiha in general, she was glad that he was atleast willing to cooperate, even if only slightly, to identify the masked man.

 _"Mangekyou?"_ She asked in confusion.

 _ **"It's the evolved form of the sharingan, has a few scary abilities including one capable of controlling us tailed beasts. Don't worry about it too much Kit, you won't need to know anything about it anytime soon."**_

"He says he doesn't know, though he does know the pattern of the man's Mangekyou if that helps." Her mentioning of the Mangekyou almost made Fugaku spit out his drink, though he was choking slightly.

"W-wait, how do you know about that? Its existence is a secret even amongst the Uchiha." He asked as Itachi and Sasuke wore confused expressions, backing up his claim.

"Kyuubi, remember? Said that he was controlled by it." She said, receiving an 'ah' from both Mikoto and Fugaku.

"Well no matter, the first thing we need to do, is get you to start using the Henge and master it. If you're seen like that by any member of the ANBU during patrol, you will probably be hunted down by Danzo for his sick purposes, and not to mention that you will be attracting far too much attention once academy starts." Fugaku began to explain.

She nodded. Her current appearance gave all the more reason for the villagers to try to kill her as they would be convinced that she was the Kyuubi itself.

"And if I remember correctly, you haven't merged with the Kyuubi fully yet, but what happens when you do? any Idea?" He asked out of curiousity.

 **"Animal merges usually end up with the host receiving some of the animal's traits, In this case you already have. I don't know what merging with me, a chakra construct with the most dense chakra capacity in the world would do to you, but I can assure you that you won't become a beast."** Natsumi repeated it to Fugaku, who was now back into analysing mode, though relief was evident on his face.

 _"So if there's another one of these transformations, then she can attach more items to her soul through it? That could be quite the opportunity."_ He thought to himself.

The Kyuubi, anticipating the question, replied without it being asked. **"Yes, you can create more soul-pieces through it. The main reason soul merges used to be practiced were the weapons and armour that could be created through it, though people realised that to create something that was truly worth all the effort and price, a monstrous soul of a beast would be required at the very least, and it was slowly forgotten.**

 **"Now tell him to stop asking questions, I may tolerate him but I won't forget that someone of his wretched clan did this to me"** The tailed beast ended with a growl, ending the connection abruptly.

"He doesn't like the Uchihas, he said that he won't answer any more questions for now." Hearing this, Fugaku frowned, but accepted with a nod nonetheless. It was fortunate that the Kyuubi was even in the mood to answer questions from the clan that had controlled him against his will.

"Alright, I would offer you residence here again but since I know you'll refuse, have a little more food before you go. I recommend you to take some more food." He offered with a smile. Though it bugged him to leave a child to survive on her own, he couldn't really fault her logic, or deny her growth due to it.

He waited for a moment with his eyes closed, waiting for a reply which never came. After a few seconds, he opened them to see that Natsumi. On closer inspection, he could see that the remaining people in the household were stifling their laughter whilst looking at him. Sasuke didn't even try to hide it and was on the floor laughing hysterically.

He wondered for a moment, before he realised what had happened. Looking down, he noticed his clothes had been switched with a Kimono- a pink, female kimono of all things.

He had been told that he usually spaced out and didn't pay attention to his surroundings when offering things to others, closing his eyes until the other party accepted. Natsumi had managed to find out and used every opportunity available to prank him by using his habit to his advantage. It seemed that his clothes had been kawarimi'd with a spare pair that had come from who knows where. His eyes twitched as he thought back and realised that this was at the very least the fifth time he had been pranked in this same mannor.

"Cheeky brat" he muttered to himself. The food that was set on the table were missing to, and assumed that Natsumi had took it with her with the permission of Mikoto and left before he could figure out what she had done.

 _'A damn prankster, just like her mother... at least her pranks are harmlesss... for now.'_ He shuddered at the thought of the child beginning to get 'practical' with her pranks like her mother did during the academy years when people were ridiculing her for her hair.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Swiftly changing back into a spare pair of clothes, he opened the slide door to find a young Uchiha messenger waiting outside.

"The council wishes for your presence Fugaku-sama, they are trying to convince you to rethink your... 'priorities'" He used the most respectful tone he possibly could as not to agitate the clan head by implying anything.

A tick mark appeared on Fugaku's forehead. The Uchiha elders had been attempting to convince him to join them on their little coup plan, though to no avail. The current hokage was doing all he could to support the Uchihas in this time of mistrust, and although he didn't approve of the man's parenting skills, he certainly was a good leader. There was no reason to be hasty and risk too much with a coup when his children's lives were at stake, not to mention Natsumi's standing in Konoha.

"Tell them that once they grow a head, they can seek me out again." He replied in a most serious tone, causing the messenger to start sweating, albeit slightly.

"R-right away Fugaku-sama." The man practically ran off, not wanting to spend another second being scrutinised by the powerful clan head.

Fugaku sighed as he looked back at the worried faces of his family sans sasuke who was playing with one of the jet black arrows he had taken from Natsumi without her noticing. Though the child wasn't as proficient as the blonde namikaze girl in most areas, he did manage to pick up the stealth arts from the pranks they usually performed together. He nodded towards Itachi who nodded back before disappearing with a crow shunshin to inform Minato of what had just transpired.

"W-what!?" Sasuke exclaimed as the arrow in his hand began to fade before disappearing into nothingness. Fugaku could tell that the arrow had dissolved into chakra, further supporting his earlier theory that the arrows were pure chakra constructs.

"It probably went back to Natsumi's quiver, you didn't break anything, don't worry." He reassured his son. Natsumi had a Kushina level temper on the occasions that Sasuke touched- or worse, broke one of her possessions without her permission, and Sasuke looked like he was about to faint when he thought that he had broken such an expensive looking object.

"Are you sure she'll be fine out there? She was just in a life or death situation you know?" Mikoto asked in a concerned tone.

"Don't worry, if anything that incident will teach her to be more vigilant of her surroundings from now on, it's a good skill to have when you are surviving on your own." He explained. "Not to mention that she has the Kyuubi looking out for her along with those new gears, even you should've noticed that those were some top-grade weapons, clothes and armour- one of a kind actually."

At this, his wife nodded. "Yes, you're right, I'm just being paranoid now." She looked at her husband with a light smile. "Sake?" She offered.

He grinned. "You know me well."

* * *

 _Another universe_

Inside a sealed room within the Clock Tower, a portal-like hole was ripped open. A figure clad in green stepped out, her emerald and flaxen hair swaying behind her. As she stepped out, she could hear the sound of clapping from in front of her. She grabbed her bow on instinct, but relaxed with a tick on her forehead as she recognised the source.

"Splended job, you just singlehandedly saved an entire universe ALOT of unnecessary trouble and deaths, and as much as it pains me to say this- you have successfully averted a disaster." His tone clearly told the green clad huntress that he would have loved to see the ensuing chaos of the 'disaster'.

"Shut it vampire, I did it for mother and the children whose lives would have been robbed otherwise." She said whilst scowling.

The now identified Zelretch simply chuckled. "How unbecoming of a woman, you'll start getting wrinkles if you keep that u-" He quickly dodged to the side nonchalantly without a care in the world as an arrow imbedded itself in his previous position.

"That's not very polite! I could've died you know!" He mock shouted with exaggerated gestures.

"Then you would have done the world a favour." Atalanta added.

"Nonetheless, the job is done, crisis averted, now we just wait for our cute little king to come back aswell and we can all relax, how about a party afterwards, ey?" He proposed, earning a growl and another arrow in response.

"As much as I am glad that another universe has been saved, why did you tell us about this? As far as I know, destruction and chaos is your middle name, why are you so concerned with the wellbeing in another universe?" She asked cautiously. It was a question that had been bugging her since she was sent to the alternate universe to assist Natsumi. Her mood worsened when Zelretch's grin got wider.

"Do you think I can just jump around from universe to universe causing destruction without any consequence? Hell no, the foundations of existence would tear me apart, so I do some good things now and then to balance out the destruction" He said enthusiastically with gestures as dramatic as cartoon characters, earning a sigh from the chaste huntress.

At least she could be glad that he had no ulterior motive behind it, but then she realised the wording.

"Wait... so that means you can go around causing more destruction in other universes for the time being?"

"Yep!"

"And you just decided to make us do your work for you?"

"Indeed!" The dead apostle replied cheerfully, causing Atalanta to groan as she realised that Zelretch hadn't magically changed his ways as she had hoped. The grin on his face disappeared suddenly as he adopted a face of curiosity, a rare sight that didn't belong on the old troll's face.

"Did you manage to see Ophis and Great Red during your time?" He asked, a genuine question that wouldn't lead to her revealing embarrassing information about herself accidently- very rare coming from the infamous wielder of the Kaleidoscope.

"No, mother seems to be as distant to her family as she claimed back then. Even if I did see them, I wouldn't have done anything, they were still **children** then." She replied, eyeing the vampire suspiciously whilst implying a specific word that the vampire knew was basically a trigger on the huntress' mood.

He put his arms up in a surrendering pose, "Do calm down, I wasn't implying anything, I just wanted to know if that loli dragon was as expressionless 2B even as a child."

"2B?" She asked.

"Ah, don't mind that, just someone I met in one of the more interesting universes I visited. Did you know that apparently humans actually managed to make lifelike robots with emotions and everything in that particular universe, I mean the androids were hotter than any woma-" He was abruptly cut off as a barrage of arrows assaulted his position, causing him to duck and hide under a table, an irritating grin still plastered on his face.

"Keep your fantasies to yourself you wretched male, I swear in Artemis' name that I will have your head one day." She growled out, face beginning to redden as Zelretch's taunts were beginning to get to her.

"And I look forward to that day." He fled the room before Atalanta could have the chance to begin channeling her more powerful attacks. Though he enjoyed getting on people's nerves, it would be more of a pain to rebuild the Clock Tower afterwards simply because he had pissed off a very a legendary hero of the past.

* * *

 **Greetings readers, it's me again. It's been a while, but here's a chapter nonetheless. Some characters are obviously different from canon, but this is to be expected from several influences, such as the Namikaze's being alive and Minato being hokage instead of Sarutobi, meaning that the Uchiha issue would be handled with more care and urgency as Mikoto and Kushina are kind of friends.**

 **Natsumi's influence is evident on sasuke, though after the Uchiha incident (which, though will be delayed, will still happen) he will still be similar to canon sasuke, but less arrogance and actually has a friend in the form of Natsumi instead of being a loner.**

 **I try not to needlessly bash. Some of what I write will seem like bashing, and probably is, but I will not overdo it. Everyone can reform, and not everyone needs to go out of their way to be evil.**

 **Natsumi will NOT be ridiculously overpowered from canon's start, so don't expect her to start taking out Zabuza singlehandedly with no effort whatsoever, Sure she has alot of raw power at her disposal, she has no experience, and her wit will be her ultimate weapon.**

 **last scene might make some think of this as a crack-fic, but I assure you, this fic will have its nice, sunny and humorous moments, along with very tragic moments.**

 **I do hope you enjoyed~ point out any errors in spelling and such and I will try to fix, if you liked it, leave a review and stay tuned, if you didn't like it and decide to drop, tell me why with a review, and you can leave as you desire, but I do hope to keep improving in hopes that one day you do return.**

 **happy reading, and see you all next time! (my birthday is on christmas, unlikely you will get a chapter then, stay tuned to boxing day if for any chance though.)**


	4. 4 Merge

_One month later_

The sound of piercing air could be heard in a clearing slightly outside of Konoha's borders. Every few seconds, a projectile flew at impossible speeds before lodging itself into a large boulder, all clustered around the centre of the boulder where cracks had begun to form, slowly enveloping the entire boulder as more and more projectiles were shot.

At the source of the arrows was a young child clad in black, a beautiful bow drawn and being fired as if the size didn't hinder the girl at all. As time passed, the arrows began to land more accurately, and eventually started filling the holes left by earlier arrows and causing internal damage within the boulder. One would expect the girl to start tiring out, but instead the she picked up the pace and began shooting faster and harder whilst she reduced the amount of chakra she supplied to her upper body slowly but gradually, until she no longer used any chakra to strengthen herself, but only to prolong her endurance in order to keep shooting.

This continued for minutes, perhaps hours as arrows that had been previously imbedded in the boulder dissipated and reformed within the girl's quiver. Eventually, the cracks had enveloped the entire boulder to a point where even the slightest nudge would end in its collapse. Noticing this, the girl lowered the bow before pulling out the dagger kept under her skirt. Taking two forward leaps and what little chakra she had remaining being supplied into her arms, she threw the dagger with a slight spin before pulling back, watching as the blade spun rapidly whilst making its way to the boulder that was about a hundred meters away at an impressive speed.

A sound confirmed that the dagger had collided with the boulder, and as confirmation the larger boulder collapsed into a pile of smaller stone and dust, causing the earth the shake as the larger pieces of the boulder dropped to the ground. A weight could be felt on her waist, confirming that the dagger had returned to its original position. She was admiring her work with a satisfied smile until a voice broke her out of her own world as she dropped to her knees, panting with exhaustion.

 _ **"You realise that the dagger hit the boulder from the pommel right?"**_

 _"Shut up."_

 _ **"You put too much chakra into it and miscalculated the spin."**_

 _"I know."_

 _ **"And also you-"**_

 _"I know! Stop reminding me of it, that was my first attempt for kami's sake!"_ The girl mentally yelled as she ran out of what little patience she possessed, though her frustrations didn't die as she heard a chuckle within her mind.

 _ **"Hahahaha, maybe I should tease you more often? You're cuter when you're angry, imouto."**_

Suppressing a groan, she turned slightly red at the way the Kyuubi had addressed her. Though she would never admit it, she liked it when the tailed beast acted like a sibling, perhaps it was due to the lack of love in her upbringing, but it brought warmth to her heart that she had someone that would accompany her for life and would never abandon her.

 _ **"But on the bright side, your accuracy is getting better, and you can utilise 10% of the bow without any form of chakra assistance, whilst you can go up to 20% at max with chakra. Once we complete the Soul-merge, I can assist you on the accuracy side of events- no, I'm not going to tell you how, you'll find out then. By the time you enter academy at the end of this year, you should be able to draw up to half if you keep going at this rate.**_

 _ **"And also, why were you trying to throw the dagger again? Kunai's exist for that purpose you know."**_

"But the dagger reforms and it can't be deflected!"

 _ **"...Yes, thought that's true and will catch stronger enemies off guard, you can't exactly use it as a casual throwing tool."**_

"That's what the bow is for though..."

 _ **"You know what, I give up. Just remember that the soulmerge will commence any time today since it has been a full month, just make sure you don't go to any danger zones, even I can't protect you in the case that wild animals decide to have a bite at you."**_

"Don't worry, this place is officially Uchiha territory, there are seals all over the place preventing wild animals from getting nea-AAAGH!" With a cry of pain, Natsumi fell to the floor clutching her head before swiftly falling unconscious. At the same time, The Kyuubi experienced pain for the first time in years as she swiftly fell unconscious inside the mindscape.

 _ **"So its begun..."**_

* * *

She found herself in a dark sewer, too big to be of Konoha's , yet for some reason she found the atmosphere familiar- yes, this was what she felt during her time inside her own mindscape. Further ahead, she saw ten figures, nine sitting in a circle around the tenth. Looking closer, she could see that nine of the figures were animals of some sorts. Tanuki, Kitsune- they were all tailed beasts! But to her surprise they were all small, too small to fit the frightening figures they were, it was like they were all still...

young?

She could make out the Kyuubi at on the far side of the circle, at the very least a hundred times smaller than she was depicted in the current day and age and cuter by the same amount.

In the middle of the circle stood an old man, with two horns sticking out of his forehead. His two eyes were of a purple ripple-like pattern whilst a third eye coloured a sharingan red was present on his forehead. She could tell from the eyes and behavior of the tailed beasts that they revered and respected the man, almost like a parent. A staff rested by his side whilst he radiated an aura that screamed power.

She couldn't make out what they were saying, and before she could analyse the scene any further, the world twisted and distorted.

* * *

once she came to her senses again, she was now at a waterfall. She could hear shouts coming from behind her as she twirled around, before she gasped in shock.

She recognised the place, it was where Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama fought for the last time, but instead of two statues, there stood two people, looking exactly the same as the statues she was so used to.

She watched as the two figures clashed with monstrous techniques that she didn't even know were within human reach. Eventually, the Kyuubi appeared, roaring without the sanity that she usually had. Looking carefully, she could see a strange sharingan pattern replacing the Kyuubi's usual weary eyes. _'Is this what the mangekyou looks like?'_ She thought to herself.

And even with the Kyuubi as an opponent, the Shodaime did not waver, but managed to seal the tailed beast with techniques involving wood before returning to his fight with his old friend.

Once again her vision began to distort and fade before she awoke in a small chamber.

* * *

She looked around, and saw several people surrounding a bed. Seals were all over the floor, and at the centre of the seals was a woman with bright Uzumaki red hair. The shodaime could be seen holding the woman's hands since she looked as if she was in pain. red chakra surrounded the woman, the familiar red chakra of a tailed beast.

From this, she could now tell that she was viewing memories- memories of the Kyuubi to be specific. From her knowledge, she could tell that the woman was Mito Uzumaki, and the scene was most likely the events of the Kyuubi's first sealing and the birth of the first jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.

Her vision faded once again as the sealing was reaching its end, and she awoke in front of a village, Konoha to be exact.

* * *

It was night, and she could see fire emerging from various parts of the village along with the village sirens blaring. Looking behind her, she could see a figure, her father to be exact, fighting the Kyuubi. She watched as a tailed beast bomb was thrown at Minato whilst he swiftly used a Hiraishin to teleport it to a distant location, protecting the village in the process.

She had heard stories from the village about how the battle had went, and though she didn't doubt her father's combat abilities, her past had slightly clouded her judgement on the man's skills, but seeing the battle up close, she had no choice but to acknowledge that her father was indeed powerful, perhaps the most powerful she had seen personally, not counting the two founders she had witnessed earlier. Looking closely, she could see the sharingan replacing the Kyuubi's eyes again, confirming the story that she had indeed been controlled. Though the tailed beast had personally told her of what had transpired shortly after the half-merge, she couldn't believe everything she heard even if the Kyuubi was the closest thing to an actual family she had that genuinely cared for her at the moment not counting the Uchihas, and seeing that she was indeed telling the truth, Natsumi felt slightly guilty inside for doubting her words.

They fought and they fought, and eventually with the use of several toads (which Natsumi found absolutely gross in all aspects, why a toad contract of all things?) to hold the Kyuubi down, he swiftly performed the sealing.

She watched on as her father decided the order of the sealing, of the yin, yang and the soul... A simply choice that had literally changed Natsumi's life forever.

The vision faded once again as the Kyuubi was sealed.

* * *

But this time, something felt off. She wasn't drowsy like the last time it occurred, fully awake as she was surrounded by darkness. She began to grow worried as the minutes passed and nothing happened, but eventually a small spark of light appeared in the never-ending darkness. The light ate away at the darkness slowly, before she was finally thrust into another memory, and her instincts told her that this was the final one.

...But something was off.

VERY off.

She gasped as looked around. There was only one word that could describe what she was seeing-

-Hell.

The sky was dyed crimson as the desolate wasteland stretched for what seemed like ages. Bodies, some clad in armour whilst others in leather, were littered all over the ground.

Fire-

There was fire EVERYWHERE.

she could feel her stomach turning as the endless piles of scorched bodies littered the burning plains of wherever she was. Hundreds of swords lay imbedded in the ground- most were insignificant, but she could tell that others were forged by masters.

She turned around as she heard the sound of metal clashing. She could see two figures.

One was covered from head to toe in armour that was decorated in red, both in blood and in paint. Two horns were sticking out of her intimidating looking helmet which blocked all view of her face. In her hands was a beautiful blade, of a shape she had never seen before, but even she could tell that it was one of a kind. Even when covered in blood, she could see it glistening under the flaring sun that was still over the crimson sky.

She was clashing with another figure- a woman, no, teenager, around the age of 15 from what she could see. Her hair a beautiful shade of blonde that glistened as if covered in gold along with turquoise eyes very similar, but slightly different to her own. Her blue and white battledress covered her modestly, with the skirt and various parts of the body covered in thick armour that glistened under the sun just as bright as the first figure's. In one hand she was holding the most beautiful blade she had ever seen in her life. It exhibited an aura that she could only describe as divine, shining brightly as particles of gold swirled around the blade. It was of a strange design like the red sword held in the first figure's hands, but yet she could tell that it was of the same, if not superior quality to the first sword.

In her other hand she held a beautiful lance, far larger than the petite girl's frame. It was of a spiral design from the hilt, and radiated a similar aura to the sword.

She watched as the two exchanged blows at inhuman speeds, and the more she watched, the more she was convinced that this was not the Kyuubi's memory, but something else alltogether. Why she was being shown this? She had no idea, but she watched in awe as the two figures fought amidst the wasteland of scorching bodies.

Eventually, the figure clad in red armour managed to disarm the blue swordswoman of her sword. Using the opening, she thrust the lance in her other hand and impaled the red-clad warrior, who had also swung forward and impaled the blue swordswoman with his or her sword.

She held her breathe as the blue swordswoman pulled the spear out, seemingly unaffected by the stab wound, though she could clearly see that blood was pouring out of her chest where she was stabbed.

The two exchanged words as the red warrior fell forward, one hand clutching his or her wound whilst the other was reaching out for the blue swordswoman. Initially, Natsumi though that she was trying to kill her with the last of her strength, but the gesture was different from before.

It was almost like the warrior yearned for the lance-wielding woman.

A distant expression filled with pain played across the blue-clad woman's face as she watched the red warrior die, before she also dropped to her knees.

And as such, the memory faded as her consciousness was swallowed by darkness once more.

* * *

The Kyuubi watched from Natsumi's perspective as the last memory. Even for the tailed beast who had lived for a time humans could barely comprehend, she had never seen such a scene in her life.

She had decided to see how Natsumi was doing since her part of the merge was completed due to Natsumi's short and (not to sound rude) but insignificant life until now, and she was stunned to see a foreign memory playing, much like the time when the green clad cat woman had invaded Natsumi's mindscape, perhaps the same thing was happening now?

"It's a memory that I am not very fond of." A voice called from behind her. Turning his head slightly, he gasped as the blue-clad figure from the memory was standing there in her and Natsumi's mindscape, which was now that of a large open plain due to the Kyuubi's own mindscape being merged Natsumi's.

 **"I can tell... This is from the future isn't it?"** He asked as she eyed the woman carefully. Unlike the one in the memory, the woman in front of her was simply wearing a blue dress without any armour.

"Not your future, no, but mine." She said in a cryptic tone. The Kyuubi growled as she was reminded of how much she hated people who talked in a way she couldn't understand.

"What I mean is, it doesn't have to be the future for you two."

Gears were working in the Kyuubi's head. She wasn't tens of thousands of years old for nothing, and she swiftly reached a conclusion from everything she knew of the figure in front of her and the one that had appeared a month before.

 **"I see... then may I ask why you showed that memory to us? From my understanding, this doesn't have affected the merging process."**

She seemed distant for a moment before staring at the fake yet real setting sun that was a part of the mindscape, her hair flowing from the fake wind present.

"No... It wasn't necessary, but perhaps it was just my selfishness to do so. Somewhere in my mind, I'm still wishing for that day to end in a different manner, and even though showing her this is unlikely to change much, I still cling onto that hope..." She paused for a moment to collect herself.

"Quite ironic, for me who had always carried the hope of my nation upon my shoulders to cling onto that very thing in the end... But that is just a king's foolish dream." She gazed back at the Kyuubi who was listening with rapt attention.

"This is farewell Kura, may the spirits favour you in your journey." And as she said so, she began to fade away into particles of light.

 **"Indeed, may I know your name, human?"** The Kyuubi asked. There were very few humans that the tailed beast would act formally with, and the young woman in front of her had earned a spot on that list with the way she carried herself and the memory that she had shown.

The woman smiled. "My name is not something I can give, but you may remember me as the King of Knights." And with that, the woman disappeared, leaving the Kyuubi alone in the mindscape once again.

A slight tug at her consciousness told her that Natsumi was done with her part, and that the final stage of the soul-merge was about to commence.

 _ **'...Perhaps we will meet again one day, King of Knights.'**_ The tailed beast thought to herself as her consciousness faded.

* * *

Natsumi stared at the darkness as if expecting something to happen, but for what seemed like hours, nothing did. But then, something resonated from within the darkness.

Subconsciously, she began walking towards the direction the tug was coming from, and as she walked, she could feel it resonate stronger and stronger, until eventually she arrived at a patch of grass, seemingly out of place in the world of abyss around her.

Without hesitation, she moved forward and moved onto the grass. Though she didn't notice, her naked body was slowly being covered in a bright light, which eventually faded, revealing not bare skin but a pure white dress, outlined in black. plates of armour covered the chest and battle skirt which spread out like a lily, her bare foot now covered in a heeled solleret and a guards covering the entirety of both legs, though not noticed by the girl herself as she was stepping on nothingness to begin with.

With every step, the light faded even more until eventually she arrived by a pedestal at the end of the path. imbedded in the pedestal was a sword, of strange design almost identical to the one she had seen in the memory, but very different to the two she had seen then.

The sword was almost entirely sleek black from pommel to its sharp edge. Never before had she seen naturally black metal, in fact she didn't even know it was possible for such to exist. Blood red inscriptions ran across the hilt and blade of the sword, glowing ominously in the dark. If one were to look at the two, it would be clearly evident that the sword and the armor contradicted each other in almost every way, but it also the same with the bow and the hunting dress.

It was as if it were the manifestation of the contradiction that was Natsumi. Born to high society, but lived the life of the hunter. A pariah, yet cheerful and happy. A huntress, yet a swordswoman. Hated by many but never hates.

Without a second thought, she reached out and grabbed the hilt, slowly pulling it out, and as she pulled, particles of black swirled around the blade until it was completely wrapped in black. Contrary to its ominous appearance, Natsumi felt at peace as she gazed upon the sword that seemed to be dark particles endlessly from the abyss around her.

When the entire blade left the pedestal, she slowly pointed it upwards subconsciously. Almost immediately, The darkness around her dispersed and faded into pure white. At the same time, the particles of black that had been wrapped thickly around the blade began to shimmer out of existence along with the darkness that was dissipating rapidly.

To her surprise, under the particles was not just a sword, but a large sheath that perfectly accommodated the sword, also of a black and blood red design.

She stood there for what seemed like hours marveling at the blade, not noticing the world around her reforming into a grassy plain under a sunset- the combined mindscape of Her and Kurama.

 **"Like what you see?"** A voice behind her called, causing her to jump slightly and turn around. To her surprise, she found a young girl in white battle dress and a sword and sheath identical to her own strapped to her waist. What was even more shocking was that she had the exact same face and appearance as herself, it was almost like staring at a mirror.

"W-wait, who are you!" She shouted in surprise, earning a raised eyebrow from her lookalike.

 **"Look down at yourself."** The doppelganger said calmly. As she looked at herself whilst slightly hesitating, gasping when she saw that she wore the same armoured dress as the doppelganger.

"S-so, you're me?" She asked hesitantly.

 **"...It seems that despite the merge, your intellectual capacity remains the same as any Uzumaki... IT'S ME, KURAMA KAMI DAMNIT."** Kurama yelled back with visible irritation.

"But how?"

 **"Soul-merge, you realise that we are both the same entity now right? I received all your memories, you received all of mine, though I believe that you are unconsciously suppressing most of my memories and only received the most important ones since tens of thousands of years worth of them would probably break you."**

"... But if you're technically me and I'm technically you... then why are we still so different." Natsumi asked again. Like Kurama had said, over 99% of the memories had been suppressed to prevent an information overload, and would only reveal itself if she were looking specifically for the memory from within her.

 **"For one, though we may have each other's memories, we didn't experience them first-hand. Watching and experiencing are two different matters altogether. We may be the same entities, but we have different personalities which affects our thinking capabilities and the way we act, which also changes the ways we think or tackle problems."**

Natsumi simply nodded, having an easier time comprehending it since for once Kurama was talking in a way which she could understand easily. It was probably because she now knew exactly how she needed to speak for Natsumi to understand.

"Ah! So you're like a Yami Natsumi!" She exclaimed

 **"...You... or should I say we, read too many children stories. In what way am I a dark version of you? If anything I'm simply a more knowledgeable and mature.**

 **"By the way, I should mention that though you can probably find a way to switch between your huntress gear and this... 'Knight'... gear, your dagger was used to make that sword, so you aren't getting that back."**

"So no more dagger throwing?" She said with a small pout.

 **"Kami bless, no more."** Kurama finished with a satisfied smirk.

"You are surprisingly unsupportive of me even though you are me now, you know?"

 **"Perhaps I simply know what is best for us."**

"Why is it callled night gear again?"

 **"Don't know, just based it off what the blue swordswoman called herself."**

Natsumi thought to herself for a moment and dug up the memory that Kurama was talking about, It was like Kurama had said, she knew the very basics of Kurama's memories, but most of it were blurs, yet she could remember parts of the conversation.

"...I like it..."

 **"I thought you would agree."**

"Hey... so are we still siblings?"

 **"... Despite the soul merge, not much changed with our personalities and experiences, so to keep it simple, let's say yes."** Kurama replied, earning a wide grin from Natsumi, both from relief and happiness.

* * *

 **And another chapter done, Have it people, I feel that this is a good time to end off this chapter before I turn it into an infodump fest.**

 **The rest of the effects of her soul merge will be shown rather than told, and I find that the atmosphere has been pretty consistent for this chapter therefore I will end it off here.**

 **For what she looks like, just imagine saber lily with Excalibur Alter, it's the easiest way to get her appearance.**

 **Natsumi will NOT become overpowered with the merge to Kyuubi. Remember that Kyuubi was a beast in a sense, not a human, Kurama has no experiences in any way as to how human techniques work, nor does she have any significant amount of chakra to utilise her 'bomb the shit out of everything' fight style, so except for having a substantial amount of knowledge and being able to control Natsumi's body on reflex incase things go south, she doesn't get much of a powerup (not counting her knight form, which is basically the same situation as her huntress, lots of raw power, not enough control yet or skill).**

 **I am planning for Natsumi to be powerful, but not overpowered by the Zabuza arc. She won't have the skills t Zabuza in a fair fight, she will be destroyed in minutes...**

 **But natsumi is a sly little fox now, she has other ways to fight.**

 **Enjoy, and leave a review.**


	5. 5 Siblings

**Check out the front page for an art on Natsumi once she matures a bit! Thanks to a close friend of mine for the art.**

 **Let's follow the trend-**

 **I do not own Naruto, Highschool DxD and anything from within the Nasuverse. All belong to their respective authors except all OC's used.**

* * *

 _Two years later_

"Your right side is open." Itachi called as he swiftly brought the wooden sword in his hand down in an arc and knocked the jet black blade in Natsumi's hand away. Recognising the loss, the little girl who had wielded the black blade fell to her knees in exhaustion, panting heavily.

"Good work, you've covered most of the holes in your defense that were present before, just need to keep working on it so you can stick to it on instinct, we can't have you going out of stance mid fight simply because of panic and exhaustion." He said, earning a weak nod from the girl. His light smile grew slightly when he saw the determination in Natsumi's eyes.

Itachi had taken to himself to train Natsumi in the ways of the sword. Though he wasn't a master in Kenjutsu, he certainly wasn't inexperienced either. They had managed to figure out that Natsumi couldn't wield any other sword-type weapon other than the strange jet black sword with red markings that she had 'created', literally COULDN'T, as in any attempts to try would be met with the black blade materializing and replacing any weapons she held, including wooden practice swords. Because of this, they had taken to developing a new style she could effectively use in combat with the sword as no other sword they had seen in the elemental nations even remotely resembled it, meaning that existing styles were ineffective.

And so they were back to the basics- endless spars to identify how to go about using the sword, offensive? defensive? passive? aggressive? As time passed, many questions were answered, and they found that due to weight of the blade being adjustable at will by the Natsumi, its offensive capabilities were extremely high, not mentioning the natural sharpness of the black blade itself, which proved to be able to cut almost anything like butter.

There was a legend on the elemental nations that told of a sealmaster who specialised in Kenjutsu. Utilising weight seals, the man would change the weight of his blade repeatedly during battles depending on the situation. When defending, he would lower the weight for faster parries and counters. On the offensive, he would increase the weight of the sword by tenfold moments before swinging, increasing the overall strength in each attack.

The issue was that no sealmaster in the present day could replicate the feat as the art of weight seals were lost and gravity seals had extreme slow reaction time and couldn't be used effectively in combat. Natsumi however, could change the weight of the blade by simply thinking about it, no seals involved- meaning that weight shifts were almost instantaneous.

Implementing the strange fighting style however, was another story. At first, even changing the weight for small moments at a time caused her to lose her balance, leaving herself wide open. Though she managed to get a hang of it easily thanks to Kura's influence, It didn't mean that she could utilize it to its full potential without many more years of experience.

Speaking of Kura, a major boost after the merge would be the fact that Kura was also in control of the body. Natsumi would usually do most of the work, dodging and swinging whilst the tailed beast would adjust each swing slightly to perfect the accuracy and precision mid-swing, whilst also keeping track of the footwork and mentally keeping Natsumi up-to-date with her stamina and chakra levels. Overall, the two made a great team.

Even though Itachi only used practice wooden swords due to the inherent danger of using sharp objects as it was possible that he would accidently injure her beyond what she could handle, he still emerged victorious most of the time. Since her sword could cut through the stick, chakra reinforced or not, as if it didn't exist, Itachi simply redirected each swing instead of directly parrying, though it was evident on the sweat that had built up on his face after the spar that redirecting the weight equivalent to a house every time their swords met had tired the Uchiha out.

Though his opponent was still a child, it was also true that each and every swing was precise and accurate beyond what even a jonin could each due to Kura, meaning that he couldn't slack off either. Though it wasn't at a level where he needed to activate his sharingan as the swings were still relatively slow, the young girl certainly had the potential to triumph most genins with how versatile she was.

This wasn't even mentioning the armour, which could surprisingly deflect most of his attacks without even a scratch, though due to Natsumi's inexperience, she still left her unguarded sides open at times during their spars, leading to her eventual loss, either due to loss of concentration or fatigue.

"Can we do one more before we're done? Heiwanakuro wants one more round." The girl said as she reached out with her hand towards the sword that was imbedded in the ground several meters away. As if recognizing the gesture, the sword immediately detached itself from the ground and flew straight into her hands.

She had taken to naming the bow 'Fukitsushirou' - Shirou for short whilst naming the sword 'Heiwanakuro', Kuro for short. Though Itachi sweatdropped when he heard the names she had given the two weapons, they were undoubtedly fitting, it even played on the theme of contradiction that seemed to run in her.

"We will continue tomorrow, it's almost time you left for the academy, Sasuke should be finishing his lap and heading for the dining room now, get changed an-" Before he could talk further, a light enveloped the girl. After a few seconds, her pure white armour and sword disappeared, and in its place appeared a black hunting dress along with a bow that had been neatly strapped to her back. Seeing her eager grin, he sighed in defeat.

"Yes, good job on getting the transformation done in under five seconds, it's an improvement from the full minute you needed initially, though once you master it and get it down to an instant, you can start implementing it into your fighting style." He lectured. Though Natsumi could change between her hunting and 'knight' gear as she called it, the transformation was horridly slow and required all her concentration.

Over time after constant transformations, she had finally managed to bring down the transformation to only a few seconds, but a few seconds was enough for an enemy to get behind and end her life, meaning that it was currently useless in combat. Though Itachi looked like he wanted to say more, the pout that had appeared on the girl's face caused him to chuckle slightly.

"But it's going to take so long! Why is it so hard to just switch between weapons and armour!" She complained.

Itachi raised his eyebrows. "You do realise that most people can't even change, you're probably the only person in the world who can change their fighting roles on a whim. Besides, you're already pretty good with the bow, though the same can't be said to your skills in the blade."

"Hey, take that back! I'm going to be the best swordswoman in the whole of the elemental nations dattebayo!"

"Right right, now off you go, don't want to be late, do you?" Itachi said before turning around and disappearing into the woods.

 **"We should get going you know, standing around isn't going to help you."** Kura called from within her head.

"Right." She replied before taking off for the academy. It had been half a year since her education began formally, and she had registered under the name 'Natsumi' without a last name since she hadn't been particularly attached to them. Since she was officially registered as a ward of the Uchihas, there wasn't a problem in the registration.

She had contemplated on actually listening to Itachi and going with Sasuke, but the thought of Sasuke waiting at the Uchiha gates for no reason seemed to win over the logical choice.

 **"...We're pure evil, you know that?"**

"It's a harmless prank, the worst he can get is a detention anyways." She said whilst silently chuckling at her own 'masterplan'.

She had improved with her bow over the past two years, to the point where she didn't need Kura's assistance on aiming, but her control over its power was still rather lacking. After much testing over the two years, she managed to figure out how to adjust the output of the bow to the point where she could draw it all the way without it causing an S rank explosion. Now instead of the power of the bow being measured by the percent of the draw, it was simply based on both the amount of chakra she used and the visualising of how much power she wanted to pack.

It was awkward to only draw a bow by not even a fifth, so the discovery was godsend for her.

A few months prior, she attempted to empty all of her chakra reserves into one attack, which resulted in around a 50% overall attack, the highest she had ever managed to pull off. Needless to say, a crater the size of the Uchiha training grounds (which in itself is quite big) was left in the forest, though she had also fallen unconscious for a week from both mental and physical exhaustion.

The main problem with such attacks was that it required time for the energy to build up. Anything beyond 25% and the charge up would consist of several seconds. She could see improvement over the years since that limit was at 15% when she just got the bow, meaning that it was possible for her to reach a stage where she could potentially fire such shots repeatedly. Just the thoughts of it had her mouth watering.

 **"...Damn pyromaniacs."** Kura muttered.

"You're the same too, you know?"

 **"Atleast I can hide it properly"** She huffed.

Absent in her thoughts, she hadn't realised that she had already reached the academy. Subconsciously navigating through the building, she slowly made her way through to the second floor where her class was.

As she sat down, still mentally reviewing her earlier spar with Itachi and discussing it with Kura, she hadn't noticed other children beginning to pour into the room. She was eventually broken out of her thoughts as her head was slammed into the desk by a hand.

"Think you can just ditch me and get away with it, Natsumi-chan?" The voice said mockingly. Looking up, he could see a raven haired boy looking down at her with an irritating smile.

"Didn't I?" She replied before tilting her head slightly to dodge in an attempt to dodge the flick to the head. Luck wasn't in her favour however as Sasuke still managed to hit her.

"Ow!" Looking up whilst rubbing her forehead, she was met with red eyes with two tomoes each looking down at her. She had forgotten that he had unlocked his sharingan from his repeated spars with her, and as much as her bow, armour and sword were powerful, those eyes were literally cheat codes. The ability to see everything in practically slow motion and copy techniques flawlessly was something that was not to be underestimated. Though she could still best Sasuke in most spars since he didn't have anything to counter her with, who knows what could happen once Sasuke unlocked this 'Mangekyou' and gained more experience.

She could feel eyes stabbing into her back. Turning her head slightly, she could see a horde of females glaring at her and sasuke. The more affectionate gazes went over to Sasuke whilst the all the killing intent seemed to be directed at her. With a slight sweatdrop, she sighed and decided to ignore them.

"Alright class, sit down." The instructor, Iruka said whilst entering the classroom, shortly followed by his assistant Mizuki, who sent a scowling glance towards Menma and Mito, who were both present within the class.

Menma Uzumaki, Blonde hair the same as her's, three whiskers and possibly the loudest in the class other than Kiba and the Haruno girl. Lively, outspoken, and commonly mistaken as a delinquent due to his habits as a prankster much like hers and his tendency to annoy people by getting on their nerves. In fact, it was almost like the perfect clone of herself in male form but with less controlled emotions, less experience and even less manners. Though this was the case, he certainly did have the skills to back up his record of detentions due to pranks. Though not compared to her or Sasuke without using any Kyuubi Chakra, he could possibly close if he did use them, and from what she'd heard, he had a pretty good grasp over the chakra's use since Kyuubi's soul wasn't present to try to take over the host. Though that is the case, it didn't mean that there weren't no repurcussions ether. She had heard him telling his friends that he could successful control three tails worth without receiving chakra poisoning.

Mito, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Waist length crimson red hair just like Kushina with cerulean eyes that was as empty as her expression. She was quiet, but definitely not shy. It was more like she simply didn't like doing more than necessary, and if the fact that she had less emotions and facial expressions than a brick wasn't enough, she rarely spoke unless a teacher asked her to read from a textbook or if gestures weren't enough to convey her thoughts. She usually sat in the back of the class next her and Sasuke and was usually buried in her books even when the instructors were talking. The majority of the class had learned their lesson from approaching her without warning, as the last time an idiot attempted to try and talk to her by snatching her book, she released her Kyuubi chakra without hesitation and proceeded to hospitalize the academy student for over a month, before returning to her book as if nothing had happened.

She sighed as her eyes swiftly darted between the two siblings and back to the desk. She didn't talk with many people in the school except a select few, and surprisingly, Mito and Menma made their ways into the list. Perhaps it was simply because they were siblings by blood, but she felt that she could trust the two despite what their personalities may suggest.

There were far less suspicious gazes than when her time at the academy had began. Most people tended to stare at her attire and choice of weapon with curiosity, not surprising since she had the most unique appearance from all the academy students in the school.

Some doubted her ability to even use the monstrous bow, most were shot down however during the first practical examinations where she completely decimated the ranged weapon exam that was used to record preferred weapons of students and their current abilities. Needless to say, a perfect mark on accuracy was noted by the instructors, though the part where each and every target was completely destroyed from the force of the shots was not forgotten.

After that day, no one in the class questioned her abilities. Rumors spread that she also owned a sword and was experienced with kenjutsu after one student managed to catch a glimpse of Kuro and immediately assumed that she was skilled as the sword seemed to be custom built despite her not being of a wealthy background.

After the lesson on the importance of the ways of holding a kunai ended, the students were let out for a break to grab some fresh air as physical examinations and training would be next.

After bidding farewell to Sasuke, Natsumi made her way over to the edge of the yard and began to silently eat her bento box made by Mikoto that was identical to Sasuke's, who was eating whilst hiding behind a bush to avoid his fanclub.

Suddenly, she was interrupted of her conversation with the Kyuubi on the different sword stances by a tap on her shoulder. Tilting her head, she was surprised to see Mito standing there whilst looking down with the same expressionless face, but in her eyes she could see a hint of anxiousness.

"Good morning Mito-chan, what's wro-"

"You're my Nee-san, aren't you?" She interrupted.

Her thought processes shut down for a moment.

Kura's thought processes shut down at the same time.

After staring at each other for a full minute, Natsumi collected herself for a moment before she opened her mouth to tell her that she was mistaken, but it wouldn't come out. Perhaps it was because she didn't want to lie to Mito, or it was simply because of the shock of being called in such a way by someone other than Kura.

Speaking of the tailed beast turned older sibling, Kura seemed to remain silent aswell, as if letting her choose how to handle the situation as she deemed fit.

Taking a deep breath, she weighed the pros and cons of the situation. She had known Mito for over the year, and seeing as to how observant the red head was, it was no surprise that she would begin to connect the dots. She also knew that Mito was not one to tell anyone anything unless they specifically asked, including Minato and Kushina, so she didn't have to worry about that.

Even though she used a henge to cover her ears and tails, her whiskers were what defined her as a person, and as such she refused to leave them out. A normal person could dismiss them for simple coincidence, but the observant Mito most likely already knew that no one else in all of Konoha had the scarred fox whiskers other than herself and Menma, but the question was how she arrived at the conclusion of elder sister.

As if sensing her thoughts, Mito began to speak. "I've checked the hospital records already, I know that I originally had an elder sister by the name of Natsumi. For some reason, all records of you stopped being updated by tou-san a few years ago, and I have never heard of you being mentioned since I could remember." She paused whilst narrowing her eyes slightly, a rare show of emotion and expression, though minor, that was usually not present on the young Uzumaki's face.

"I don't know what happened, but our parent's behavior don't suggest longing, guilt nor any form of attachment to the past, therefore it can be concluded that you didn't pass away nor were you kidnapped. The next conclusion would be that you were given away, but judging by their personalities, they would never have done such a thing, leading to most likely conclusion being that you were simply forgotten, as impossible as it may seem."

The word caused Natsumi to shiver for a moment before she managed to collect herself. She was shocked by the observations made by the girl and the research that she undertook to come to such a conclusion. She knew that Mito was observant and very intellectually capable, but this was on a whole other level, a prodigy was the only word she could use to describe the girl that wasstaring at her expectantly. She vowed to herself that she would not be stunted by the past, and looked up with a determined gaze.

"I tend to get into impossible situations, so what will you do now that you know?"

Before she could even think, she was wrapped in a hug by the red-head. Flustered by the sudden gesture, she awkwardly returned the hug, though she could hear Kura laughing faintly at her situation from within her head.

They separated after a few seconds before other students could come around the corner and witness the scene. Mito still maintained her brick-like expression, but to her surprise, there was a lone tear that trickled down her left eye that didn't seem to belong on the stoic girl's face. Even her eyes had warmed considerably, now with hints of relief and gladness present within them.

Was this what she was anxious about earlier? The fact that she could have been wrong in her assessment, and that I could have been a complete stranger?

 **"She seems to have pride in her intelligence, she was probably scared that she would be proven wrong."** Kura commented. It made sense, with how much Mito seemed to read in her spare time, it was obvious that she valued knowledge, and the idea that her research and thought out theory being proven wrong most likely scared her.

But none of that mattered.

Because for the first time since she had entered school, she saw Mito smile, a genuine happy smile. Tears began to gather in her eyes as she realised that she had just been recognised by someone in her family. For years she had fought alone without their support, for years she fought hoping that someone would notice him.

Without giving it much thought, She stood up from seat, leaving the bento on the bench and embraced her sister whilst sobbing, an embrace that was yet again returned.

"Finally..." She muttered as the two sisters stood there under the sun, unnoticed by the rest of the students except Sasuke, who watched with a light smile tugging at his face, camera in hand taking a snap of the moment.

Even Kurama sat there in the mindscape, viewing the proceedings with a tear of gladness running down the side of her face.

* * *

 **And another chapter done! What's this? 2 chapters within 12 hours? Nani?**

 **Her swords translate to 'Peaceful black' roughly whilst the bow translates to 'ominous white' (google translate ayy)**

 **A bit of character development for this chapter, next chapter will include ... Uchiha Massacre (which was gonna happen sooner or later). If I feel like it, will also include the graduation and team selection. If I'm on drugs, will include the jonin's test for genins aswell (this one's unlikely :( )**

 **No pointless bashing is gonna happen here, I've set out the character personalities of the Menma and Mito aswell, I hope you don't think they are too bland. Remember that with no Kyuubi actively denying his chakra, these two can utilise their Kyuubi Chakra pretty fkn well, and due to it both of them are fairly powerful. This does not mean that it's gre to use and safe, from what we've seen from pseudo-jinchuurikis, the chakra itself is still volatile, meaning that using it without caution can pretty much drain and kill you. This is why they still need to train in the chakra's use and control themselves to prevent chakra poisoning and maddening effects.**

 **I'm giving Sasuke the sharingan early for plot reasons, no reason he doesn't get them from the constant training he does with Natsumi actually. This means that he is also many times more powerful than canon. You can guess what he gets after he sees his parents killed by the Uchiha Massacre.**

 **The anime showed him to be a pretty lively kid pre-Uchiha incident, so I'm following that Sasuke who has been influenced by Natsumi's upbeat personality. With that, I am also powering him up along with Natsumi a lot for reasons in the future. Don't worry, they won't turn rivals or mortal enemies, and will remain very close friends throughout the narutoverse time. Only one serious battle will happen between them (and you can guess what it is), and trust me, that battle is going to turn out ALOT different from how canon turned out.**

 **Other than that, Natsumi finally meets someone from his real family! It'll be a while until the rest of the family figure out that she's there, but atleast she has Mito now. No matter how strong Natsumi claims to be, the fact that she was forgotten still weighs on her mind slightly, and with the introduction of Mito, she can finally let some of it out.**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoyed~**


	6. 6 Cruelty of the World

**And another chapter... on my birthday... Don't ask, my writing mood is in the house.**

 **I made the mistake on the weapon names, its Heiwanakuro and Fukitsushirou, fixed that up**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the stories used, I only own the OC's**

* * *

 _One year later_

Natsumi enjoyed her time under the moon as she slowly lept from building to building, heading for the Uchiha clan house to meet up with Sasuke, who had decided to leave before her. As much as she loved the sun and sparring under the light with Heiwanakuro, as someone who had lived most her life in the forests as a huntress, she found the darkness to be the most comfortable place to be.

As she entered the manor, she felt something was off, it was far too quiet. Even though it was night, there was usually quite a lot of activity near the clan hall and training grounds, but currently she could even hear the leaves rustling under the silence. A pit began to form at the back of her stomach as he instincts were screaming at her that something bad was happening. She slowly broke into a sprint as she rushed over the clan head's house where she usually stayed during the weekends.

She silently made her way over the roof without making a sound, making use of her huntress shoes that silenced all noise from her steps.

"We are proud of you no matter what you do Itachi, all I ask of you is to protect Sasuke and Natsumi in the coming years, no doubt people will be after them." She heard a voice say, recognised as Fugaku.

"Remember, we will always love you." Another voice said, this time from Mikoto

She silently removed a brick from the side of the roof and peered in to see what was happening. She could Itachi with his ANBU mask on the side of his face with pained eyes as if he was holding in his tears and emotions. Mikoto and Fugaku both sat on the floor, backs turned from Itachi, eyes closed and smiling slightly.

"...Of course... I'm sorry." Itachi croaked out, and before she could register what had even happened, two flashes of silver appeared as both Mikoto and Fugaku fell to the floor in a pool of blood.

"...D-don't be... This is necessary... to protect the village... we have been prepared for this... since we decided to become shinobi..." Fugaku muttered, struggling to speak as life was slowly seeping out of him.

Horror was evident on Natsumi's face as she held in the urge to vomit at the sight. If it were just her, she would have most likely revealed herself with a scream, but Kura was silently holding back the urges without making a comment, perhaps frozen in surprise herself from what she was seeing.

She had just witnessed two of the most important people in her life die, not to mention by the hands of someone she had considered an older brother. Kura had taken over the body as Natsumi was beginning to hyperventilate and possibly pass out from shock. The tailed beast had never fully taken control of the body before as it was never needed, but this was a situation where she could not allow Natsumi free reign. Who knew what the child would have done in her blind rage.

She watched as Itachi simply stared at the bodies of his two parents in silence, possibly in shock at what he had just done. Natsumi and her had overheard several times plans of overthrowing the current hokage and taking over the village, but had dismissed them as she didn't believe that the Uchihas that she had grown up with would do such a thing. From the looks of things, the situation must have gone South for the Hokage to order such a deed.

Or did the Hokage even order such a thing? No matter how much Kura doubted Minato's abilities, it was clear that he was a man that valued relationships, and seeing that he a close friend of Fugaku's it didn't seem likely that he would send a kill order for the whole of Uchihas as a whole, so did someone else order it?

Neither Kura nor Natsumi knew much about Konoha's government, but they did know that the council held a noticeable amount of power over the village, perhaps more than the Hokage if they all banded together.

Or maybe this was done behind the Hokage's back without any permission or council meeting? It was unlikely, but the conclusion couldn't be thrown out the window yet.

"What's this, a survivor?" A voice mused from behind. She twirled around to see a man dressed in a coat with red clouds, donning an orange twirling mask. Before she could reply, the man reached out with his hand at an impossible speed, aimed at her heart for a swift kill. Perhaps the man underestimated her simply due to her age, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be blown back towards the street by a kick to the stomach.

* * *

Tobi, otherwise known as Obito Uchiha, was having a good day.

He had met Itachi earlier and was helping with the extermination of all Uchihas when he noticed a small shadow looming over the roof of the house that Itachi had explicitly told him not to approach nor let anyone approach except Sasuke.

To his surprise, someone had made it through his keen gaze, but instead of a shinobi, he found a child dressed strangely designed clothes, seemingly made for hunting.

 _'Just a lost Uchiha child I suppose, I must be getting old to let such a novice pass'_ He thought as he approached the child, a girl, and attempted to end her life as swiftly as possible so that she couldn't cry for help.

To his surprise, the child managed to dodge the attack and kicked him onto the empty road. He certainly didn't remember academy students kicking so hard, perhaps it was a fluke? No... the way she reacted meant that she was experienced with combat to a degree, but who would teach a child such things? Perhaps the girl was a secret weapon that the Uchihas were raising to use in the uprising?  
He didn't have much time to think as a the child had leapt quite high into the air, and to his surprise materialised a sleek black sword of a design he had never before seen. Her black gear suddenly exploded in light before transforming into a pure white battle dress, armour covering various parts of the body. He could tell that the armour was of high quality as he had witnessed several samurai and swordsman over the years, not to mention the mysterious black sword that was one of its kind.

The girl descended with a spin, swinging the blade downwards with considerable momentum. He activated his sharingan, searching for any techniques that were present, but to his disappointment it was a just a simple downward swing.

Deciding not to use his Kamui to let it faze through as it would drain chakra that could be used later if the ANBU arrived, he raised his hand, determined to catch the blade and show the child that it was pointless. As the girl got close, she let out a determined cry whilst aiming for his right arm, as if challenging him to a contest of strength, earning a snort from Tobi.

"HHAAAAA! **[Weight of the World]** " Before he could even comprehend the words that she had shouted, the sword struck down and sliced straight through his arm as if it didn't even exist.

"What!?" He cried in surprise as he refused to believe that a **child** had beaten HIM in a contest of strength, so clearly aswell. He didn't have time to think further either as he swiftly retreated a great distance backwards.

The girl continued the motion of the swing until the blade hit the floor. He expected the sword to either bounce off, or at best dig slightly into the concrete, but instead the surrounding area shook as a significant area around the point of impact caved into a crater.

...

...

...

What in the FUCK was this girl? To not only be able to beat him in terms of strength but to actually cause this much destruction with a single swing, furthermore without the use of chakra! Fortunately for him, the amputated arm could be regrown since it was on Zetsu's side, but the wound to his pride would remain for quite a while. Though it was true that he wasn't giving it his all when he attempted to catch the sword, he still put quite a significant amount of chakra into his arms just to be safe.

"...You're an interesting child to be able to wound me... The last person to do so was your precious Hokage." He said whilst ignoring the pain that was slowly disappearing as Zetsu's cells began to stop the bleeding. The girl's eyes widened before narrowing. Without another word, the sword disappeared and in its place a bow materialised. She swiftly nocked and arrow and aimed it straight towards him.

Though in most cases, he would simply go for the kill on the girl, he decided to see what she would do, as the more information he had, the better. As the arrow was released, the air around the girl shrieked as the projectile flew towards him at speeds that only jonin-ranked shinobi or above could track. He activated his kamui to let it fly through him, and watched as the arrow flew straight into a nearby civilian building that previously belonged to an Uchiha and blew it into smithereens.

 _'...An unknown variable that could possibly grow even stronger in the future, taking her out now is the best option'_ and with that, he leapt towards the child at full speed, not taking the risk of her having anymore tricks up her sleeve.

* * *

 _'It went straight through him... Kamui? so an Uchiha'_ Kura thought, still in control of the body as Natsumi was still recovering from the shock. There was a chance that she could win if it was just a random assassin, but she knew that this was the masked man that had fought with Minato on equal grounds, there was no way for her to win normally, so instead she gambled on his pride and caught him by utilising the weight shifting of the sword to raise its overall mass to its limits, not daring to use any chakra as it would alert the self-proclaimed Madara Uchiha.

Unfortunately, the man had dodged the moment the sword cleaved through the arm, causing her to miss the killing blow, leading to her situation now, most tricks used and a superior opponent in front. The only way to hit him when he could utilise Kamui was to be either faster than him or catch him off-guard, which was now highly unlikely as he would be on guard due to the loss of an arm.

She panicked as the man seemed to lose all the playfulness that was present earlier as he lunged at breakneck speed. Bringing her sword up to meet the attack hurriedly, she blinked as the attack never came. She looked up to find Itachi standing in front of her, blocking the attack meant for her.

"The girl's not an Uchiha, leave her." He said plainly, devoid of emotion.

The masked man stared at Itachi for a moment, before his gaze landed back onto her, analyzing the situation and weighing the pros and the cons. After a few moments, he sighed before nodding slightly.

"If you say so, then let us take our leave." He replied before swiftly vanishing with a kamui, possibly to get his injury treated more thoroughly. She released the breath that she had unconsciously held. Though she had managed to injure the man, it was simply due to his arrogance, and if the two of them were to fight, she would most definitely lose as she had no real way to injure to masked man, not mentioning the fact that her combat experience was almost non-existent compared to him.

She collected herself before looking up at Itachi, who was facing away from him, slowly walking towards the forest.

"...You're not a bad person, Itachi, don't ever think you are." She said calmly whilst staring at the back of the man she considered as a brother. The words caused said man to freeze in his spots. He turned his head to stare at her with an irritatingly expressionless face on par with Mito.

"I am a man who killed his own family for power, how could you say that I am not a bad person?" He asked, staring at her whilst awaiting an answer.

"If that were your own choice, then you most certainly would be, but remember that I am tens of thousands of years old, and I have seen that look in your eyes in many who have gone down in history as traitors, yet in reality are heroes." She said, earning a gasp from Itachi as his eyes widened. From the words, he could tell that he was not speaking to Natsumi, but to the Kyuubi, Kurama.

"I-I see..." He struggled to say as he gulped.

"Don't worry, I've generally figured out the situation, but I won't say a word to anyone, not even Sasuke." She replied, causing the stoic man to sigh in relief.

"...Look after him, will you?" He pleaded.

"With my life, he is one of the only remaining people Natsumi has left, if he decides to embark on the path of revenge, then I will help him as this is the path you have chosen, don't regret it now."

"... I won't... goodbye." He called, but before he could take another step forward-

" **[AMATERASU]!"** A voice from behind called as black flame erupted from Itachi's coat, causing both of their eyes to widen in surprise. She turned her head to see Sasuke glaring furiously at Itachi, blood dripping from both eyes as a strange pattern consisting of three ellipses replaced the usual tomoes of his sharingan.

 _'Mangekyou'_ Kura concluded as she reviewed the events that had occurred recently. the most likely scenario was that either he had seen Itachi execute their parents, or he had stumbled upon their dead bodies. It was distressing to know that someone so young could wield such a power, but nothing in her life nor those involved with her life could ever be normal.

before Sasuke could damage his eyes further in his own rage, she dashed forward and delivered a swift jab to the back of his neck intended to knock him out for the rest of the night.

After confirming that he was unconscious, she turned around and looked the expressionless Itachi in the eye.

"Take care of yourself." She finally said, breaking the awkward atmosphere between the two.

"...Of course, I leave him to you then." He replied before dashing off into the distance.

Left alone in the middle of the street littered with bodies, she looked back up at the moon that was directly overhead.

"Why is life so cruel to the best?" She muttered to no one in particular. Her trance continued for minutes until she heard footsteps coming from her far left. She once again switched into her huntress clothes and took to the rooftops after laying Sasuke down in a spare bed in one of the now empty houses of the district.

As she approached the source of the noise, she could see an elderly figure moving through the bodies in a hurry. The man stopped at the body of a nearby corpse, and to her disgust he pulled out both eyes and stored it inside a jar before sealing it inside a storage seal.

"Robbing sharingans? Not on my watch..." She muttered as she silently nocked an arrow and fired. The man reacted swiftly as the sound of piercing air caught his attention, but it was already too late. The arrow went straight through the man's heart before cleanly exiting through his backside, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. He instantly fell to the floor lifeless with his eyes still wide in surprise, not even knowing the cause of his own death.

Kura could feel a slight headache, most likely from Natsumi's reaction to her first kill. Even though technically she didn't kill him personally, she still experienced the action as if she had done the deed herself. Kura berated herself mentally for a moment, forgetting that her counterpart had not killed a human being before, and now she had just added more weight onto Natsumi's already frail mentality from the events in the past hour.

Deciding to apologise later, she approached the corpse, gasping in surprise as she recognised the identity of the corpse- a member of the council, Shimura Danzo if she remembered correctly. Was this the person who had given Itachi the order? It was very likely, as the timing of his appearance suggested that he knew the massacre at this specific time.

The most likely scenario was that the man had given the order to kill all the Uchihas and flee so that he could harvest the sharingans for who knows what purpose. It certainly was alot more plausible than Minato sending the son of one of his closest friends to kill that said friend and a large number of innocents just to take care of a few troublemakers.

She could feel her vision beginning to fade slightly, most likely from exhaustion, both physically and mentally from the events of the day. Deciding not to spend a second longer near the corpses of those she had known for years, she grabbed Sasuke from the house she had left him in earlier and headed for village to both inform them of the situation and call for help. She decided to leave Danzo with his jars of sharingans next to him along with the storage scroll. Best case scenario, it would expose the man for his foul deeds and everything would be well, at worst there would be some political backlash due to the death of an influential member of the council, but she decided that having the man exposed for his crimes was more important than more paperwork for Minato.

...It really was a long night, wasn't it?

* * *

 **AAAnnnnnd another one! It's my birthday and I'm spending it writing, don't ask me why.**

 **Next chapter will be timeskip to graduation.**

 **For those who may ask, Natsumi is not at a level where he can beat Tobi in a straight out fight, in fact the only thing that could probably damage tobi would be a high powered arrow from her bow since it would be faster than even his reaction time, anything else and he would just kamui in and out before ending her, not to mention that he has superior speed and more variety of techniques.**

 **Natsumi simply used her age and petite figure to her advantage to cause Tobi to underestimate him and force him into blocking an attack that she knew he had no chance of blocking.**

 **Tobi's surprise at her abilities is pretty obvious, you don't see an 11 year old causing an A-rank level destruction without the use of chakra everyday. Since he doesn't know the Kuro's property, he's just gonna assume that it was Natsumi's own strength. The arrow shot also further leads to him to believe that Natsumi is incredibly dangerous and could hinder his plans in the future if he lets her grow, but at the moment his priority is to appease Itachi and get him on his side, not to take out a 'potential' enemy.**

 **Danzo is dead! I could try to stick to the plot, and have him magically escape by the use of plot armor, but or hey, we can just be realistic and kill him off here like I did because he really doesn't serve much purpose. The man himself is pretty weak without the use of spam Izanagi's and suicide bombs, so I don't see how he could dodge an arrow that he wasn't prepared for at all.**

 **Other than that, enjoy and do leave a review, they tend to motivate me to write more and I will shamelessly admit it~**


	7. 7 Test

**Disclaimer: You know the rest**

 _One year later_

"Team 10 under Sarutobi Asuma will consist of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Choji." Iruka called from the front of the class as the rest of the class listened raptly, with the exception of Mito, who was reading as usual, and Shikamaru who seemed to be asleep.

"Team 8 under Yuhi Kurenai will consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba" Mizuki called this time from his set of lists.

It had been a year since the Uchiha incident, and things had been... different... since then. Both Sasuke and Natsumi had taken their training up by a notch as they no longer had much to do with the absence of residents in the Uchiha district. In fact, the only two residents were Sasuke and herself, and to say it was lonely was a huge understatement.

After the incident, she had officially moved into the Uchiha manor to keep Sasuke company and to stop him from damaging himself through extensive training that he couldn't handle. He was hell-bent on revenge against Itachi, but atleast he would listen to Natsumi most of the time, most likely because he was in a similar situation to her, where she was one of the important people left to him.

Though she knew the real reason behind Itachi's actions, she didn't speak about it like she (or Kura to be exact) had promised Itachi. If Sasuke wanted his vengeance, then she would play along for both Itachi and Sasuke's sake. She spent most of her spare time sparring with Sasuke, hunting or reading through the Uchiha library which she got permission from Sasuke to use.

Speaking of the library, shortly after the incident, her father had contacted Sasuke and expressed his condolences along with providing aid, including funds necessary to keep the more important functions of the Uchiha districts functional.

Though he had been hesitant on accepting an offer from the man who had forgotten their own child and left her to survive on her own, she had managed to convince Sasuke to not let grudges interfere with needs.

Danzo's death was publically announced, but not his actions. As much as Natsumi wanted the man revealed for the monster he was, he simply had too much support within the village, and such an announcement would most certainly cause unrest within Konoha, something she agreed was not needed, which was why it was said that he had simply been killed by Itachi whilst he was visiting the clan head.

Root, a division of the ANBU headed by Danzo, was merged with the general ANBU unit, whilst his personal assets were seized to be used to fund Sasuke and the rebuilding of certain parts of the Uchiha district. Only Sasuke knew the truth behind the man's death, and when he had learnt of why she had done so, he swiftly wrapped the girl in a hug and thanked her for preventing the desecration of his clansmen, much to the embarrassment of Natsumi.

She had also forbidden him from using his Mangekyou, and it was one of the few problems they both agreed upon rather swiftly. After some light reading in the deeper parts of the clan library, the disadvantages of its use heavily outweighed the advantages in the long run, and losing his vision was not something Sasuke wanted before he even met Itachi.

And here they were now, a year later after passing the Genin exam and finally being assigned into teams with a jonin sensei.

Team 10 was the Ino-Shika-Cho trio of this generation, and if anything they seemed slightly dysfunctional even if the three members were close friends. Their abilities synergied well together but for now they were simply a ragtag group of people with abilities that could potentially work well.

Shikamaru was the quiet and observant type, much like Mito, but added with it he also was the laziest person she knew. She had no idea how the man could fall asleep in the middle of PRACTICAL exams, but somehow he proceeded to prove her wrong at every instance. Despite this, he was capable during the few times he was serious.

Choji was an... odd-ball, to say the least. One look at him, and the last thing that to come to mind would be a Shinobi, Seriously. His physical stamina was not high, and his refusal to hurt his targets was also another issue, but despite his size and quarks he was indeed very well-versed with the Akimichi clan techniques, and could use his size to his advantage.

Ino was probably the weakest link of the three. The main problem was that for some reason she considered Natsumi as a love rival in her pursuits of Sasuke's attention along with 3/4 of the female class population. For one, she was incredibly jealous that Natsumi was the only one that Sasuke would allow near him, not to mention the fact that he was more comfortable when she was, but she was also incompetent due to the fact that she spent most of her time visually stripping said boy instead of training.

Though the Yamanaka clan poison techniques could be extremely dangerous when used correctly, Ino did not give off the vibe of reaching such a level anytime soon. The team wouldn't work well if their only ranged support was incompetent.

That said however, the team probably had the most synergy out of all teams mentioned so far.

Natsumi's results were somewhere in the upper middle, mostly because of her refusal to use kunais and shurikens, or should she say her complete inability to use them, as in Shiro would literally NOT LET HER USE THEM AT ALL EVEN IF SHE WANTED TO, much like Kuro with swords. This resulted in her failing most practical exams they set up, though she was given a satisfactory in all cases since she had proven that she was faster and far more skilled with the bow than most students were with their shurikens and kunais.

In fact, it would be blasphemy if they failed her simply because she didn't follow norms, if her accuracy and power with the weapon was any indication of her becoming a splendid kunoichi, her skills with the sword was another, though the school didn't know of course as there wasn't a test for kenjutsu.

This however, meant that she was given only a satisfactory, and was not marked like the rest of the students were.

Her taijutsu was at genin standards at the very least, and she couldn't find a reason to train herself in it except to the required level as there wouldn't be a situation where she couldn't access Kuro and Shiro.

Whilst she didn't have the Top Kunoichi nor Rookie of the Year titles of the graduates (instead taken by Mito and Sasuke respectively) due to this, the class and instructors commonly agreed on the fact that she had the most combat potential of the graduates, even more so than Sasuke.

Of course, it wouldn't be a surprise when team 7 was called.

"Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi will consist of Hyuuga Himari, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka called.

...

Well this would be a pain.

Though she had beaten most of the arrogance out of Sasuke, he still had an unnecessary amount of pride in his skills at his age, and no one in that team was near his level in terms of skill. Whilst the Hyuuga girl is of a branch house, her abilities were at least near the top of the class, but not enough to stop Sasuke if he were to do something stupid

Though Natsumi didn't know how that would work out, it was good to know that Kakashi would be with them to teach Sasuke on the effective usage of the sharingan. Since the massacre a year ago, the lack of sharingan wielders meant that he had to improvise on his learning of his clan dojutsu, which also meant that his progress was slowed down quite considerably in that field.

She could hear Sasuke banging his head on the desk from behind her, more so when he heard the Haruno girl's name than when he heard the Hyuuga's. At the very least Himari could keep up with him during missions.

"Team 12 under Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina will consist of Natsumi, and Uzumaki-Namikaze Mito and Uzumaki-Namikaze Menma."

...

Natsumi looked up and stared at Mito with an unreadable expression, who stared back with the same. Menma was at the front of the class celebrating the team he had been put in. Despite how calm she looked on the outside, her thoughts were in turmoil.

The siblings said nothing, but the two could hold a mental conversation through gestures and eye movements.

 _"Does she know?"_ Natsumi asked using the universal hand language of the Elemental Nations. Whilst the team members and sensei could be a coincidence, it was nonetheless unbelievable that the entire team could consist of one family, despite the fact she was not formally known or registered as an Uzumaki-Namikaze.

 _"No, she doesn't know yet, most likely coincidence."_ Mito signaled back, earning a sigh from Natsumi, both from disappointment and a slight hint of loneliness.

Despite the fact that it was only coincidence, atleast it meant that she could spend some time with her family even if half of them weren't aware of her identity. The last time she had seen her mother was a number of years ago, before she left to live in the forest.

"Please wait here until your Jonin sensei's arrive to pick you up, and most importantly, Congratulations to you all!" Iruka exclaimed before exiting the room with Mizuki in tow.

Natsumi waited in silence with her eyes closed whilst Mito continued to read as if nothing happened in the first place. Menma seemed to be trying to copy the two of them in their silence, but the fact that he was tapping the floor with his foot repeatedly was a sign that he was starting to get bored from the lack of action.

As time passed, people began to leave one by one following the jonins that had began to arrive until it was only them and team 7 remaining. The only noise present in the class were Menma's occasional foot-tapping and Haruno's squeals whilst ogling Sasuke.

Around half an hour later, the door opened to show a red-haired beauty that seemingly hadn't aged a day since Natsumi had last seen her. Wearing a green jonin vest and red gloves covering both her hands. She could make out rough seals that went across the surface of the two gloves, and seeing that she was specialised in bare-handed taijutsu, it seemed fitting that she wore custom gloves that most likely had gravity seals to bring down her fists with less effort and more power.

"O-K! Team 12, meet me at training ground 12 in the next 5 minutes or I will fail you immediately, bye bye~." Natsumi sweatdropped at the sudden tone change the moment she threatened to fail them. Menma immediately took off with a motivating shout whilst Mito silently closed her book and began to calmly walk towards the window before leaping off, leaving her alone with team 7.

She stood up and left the building after bidding farewell to Sasuke, who returned the farewell with a nod. She could hear the Haruno girl fuming as she left, most likely because Sasuke answered everyone except Natsumi with only typical Uchiha grunts as a response.

She leapt onto the top of the academy building before looking around to locate her destination, which was west from her current position. Releasing her inner Kyuubi side whilst maintaining her henge, her pupils turned into slits as a her eyes began to glow a dangerous blue, giving off a beastly glint.

A growl escape her lips as she bent her legs and took off towards the training ground. She leapt as high as she could into the sky with the use of her chakra, before diving like a meteorite towards the center of the field by creating a physical platform of chakra in midair for her to kick off from.

Despite the speed she was going it, it was still not enough to cover a whole 3 kilometers with a single leap. Landing on the edge of Konoha's walls, she kicked off again whilst keeping her momentum.

It hadn't even taken a minute to reach the field through the method, but the main problem was that due to her speed, her landing was quite... unique. Despite her training to control her landings, it was still not at a level where she could safely land without causing any destruction, and as such the training ground shook slightly as she landed in the middle of training ground 12.

 _'crap, got a cramp.'_ Natsumi mentally thought as she held her left leg in her arm, ignoring the pain coming from the cramp.

 _ **"That is kind of your fault you know, you could have just came over with a shunshin, would have taken you three minutes at max."**_ Kura chided within her mind.

 _"But where's the fun in that? You can't even feel the breeze as you go by it using that method!"_ She retorted back/

 _ **"...Showoff."**_

Natsumi huffed as she turned and looked around. Her mother was silently watching her as she recovered with an amused grin playing at her lips with a hint of surprise, most likely not expecting anyone to reach the place with such a method, more so that a simple graduate was the one who used it.

"That... technique... is convenient and all, but you really should learn to control your landing a bit more, at this rate the training ground won't last if you do it every day." Kushina joked, though by the tone of her voice, the chances of it actually happening was quite high.

Natsumi pouted slightly as Kura let out a laugh, mentally high-fiving the mother.

As another minute passed, Mito and Menma appeared from the clearing, the latter celebrating his victory over his 'race' with Mito, who ignored her brother and took out her book from her back pocket, beginning to read as if nothing had happened.

"Alright, now that we're all here, why don't we introduce ourselves, I'll go first then. My name is Kushina, but you all can just call me sensei, I specialise in hand-to-hand combat and my hobbies are cooking and gardening. As for dreams, already fulfilled." She said with a smile.

"Alright! My name is Menma, and you better remember it because I'm going to be the strongest'ttebayo! My dream is to be the strongest and my hobby is to fight!" Her brother yelled from the side.

 _ **"...He even has your verbal tick..."**_ Kura deadpanned, though ignored by Natsumi.

"...Name is Mito...I like reading..." her younger sister said softly, head still down reading the book in her hands. Natsumi could feel the eyes of her mother and brother on her, waiting for her to do her own introduction.

She sighed. "My name is Natsumi, I've lived in the forest for most my life, and as such my hobbies are hunting an sparring. The only weapons I can use are my bow and my sword, and as you already know I am currently living in the Uchiha manor. My dream... I don't really have one except to live a satisfying life... I guess."

"Wait! So you ARE skilled in kenjutsu!" Menma exclaimed. She had never confirmed the rumors of her using kenjutsu, so most had dismissed it as simple rumors since she was never seen with a sword- atleast in the academy.

She nodded in confirmation before Kushina coughed into her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, I already know Mito and Menma's capabilities, but if you attack like you landed earlier, then I'm sure we can work together just fine." The light in her mother's eyes was almost frightening and Menma shrunk back slightly, now slightly afraid that Natsumi could have his mother's temper.

"Anyways, it's time for the REAL genin exam! You have half an hour to try and stop me from moving for a full second, your time starts now!" Before the three even had time to respond, she swiftly jumped onto a nearby tree and dashed into the forest.

The three graduates stared at where their mother was a moment earlier, slightly confused as to what had just happened before Menma let out a panicked yell and followed Kushina into the forest. Mito looked towards her, and the two siblings stared at each other for a moment, as if communicating simply through eye contact, before the former nodded and rushed into the forest, leaving Natsumi in the forest clearing by herself.

Seeing that no one was watching her, she climbed a nearby pole that reached far above the trees in the area, giving her an aerial view of the forest within the training ground. She could see Menma attacking Kushina with... clones? No, they were all attacking at the same time, so shadow clones?

 _ **"Though your chakra reserve is quite large, even for jonins and possibly kages, those two have my chakra sealed within them, they probably beat you in terms of chakra reserves by atleast four time, EACH. They most likely can't use normal clones as they would overload it with chakra."**_

It made sense, though the prospects of fighting an army of Menma's and Mito's was quite frightening.

She watched for another ten minutes as Menma slowly exhausted himself, eventually falling to the ground panting. She saw Kushina talking to the defeated Menma, possibly giving him feedback on his performance and reprimanding him for running of on his own without his team, though she was on the move the entire time she spoke as not lose to her own rules.

She hadn't expected her brother to be able to hold his own against her mother for such a long time even without using any of Kyuubi's Chakra. Though Kushina was holding back slightly, it did go to show that Menma did have some skill and wasn't all brawn.

Seeing that Kushina was a safe distance away from Menma, she silently took out five arrows from her quiver and began to nock them all at the same time. She aimed upwards towards the sky, arced slightly towards where her brother and mother were.

 _"Help me out here Kura."_

 _ **"Already on it"**_ The aim slightly adjusted itself from Kura's influence as she released the arrows. Once they reached their peak height and began to descend, she flashed through a series of handseals.

" **[Shinobi Arts: Arrow Shadow Clone Technique]"** She said as the five arrows each multiplied in number as they rained down upon Kushina, who had only just realised what was happening from the sound of piercing air above her. The jutsu was of her own creation, modeled after the [Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique], an advanced form of the Shadow Clone that allowed for shurikens to multiply after being thrown. Since the base idea was the same, it only took a few weeks to master. As the arrows flew, she dashed towards where they were to meet up with Menma and Mito.

She had also blunted the ends of the arrows slightly so that it wouldn't injure Kushina heavily on the off-chance that the arrows did manage to hit her.

Kushina picked up her pace and dodged around the hundreds of arrows that were raining down upon her, but by doing so she lost track of her surroundings and found herself in a small opening in the forest. Her eyes widened as the ground suddenly lit up and a strange markings suddenly covered the area.

" **[Four-Corner Gravity Barrier]"** Said Mito as she appeared from behind a nearby boulder, her hands still held in a hand-seal to maintain fuinjutsu.

Kushina's legs buckled slightly as she gritted her teeth. The seal's main purpose was to increase the effects of gravity by several fold in a certain area. Though it was an unpopular seal due to how easy it was to escape it, it was the perfect seal to use in a situation like this where Kushina had nowhere to go due to the arrow bombardment provided by Natsumi.

Two hand erupted from the ground and held onto Kushina's legs, surpising her. A moment later, Menma's face also emerged from the ground, bleeding slightly but still grinning. their mother couldn't do anything as her shoulders drooped from resignation.

"Alright, alright, you win, you can stop the seal now Mito-chan." Mito nodded and released the seal, one hand reaching for the book in her back pocket after confirming the end of the test.

"That was awesome Natsumi-chan! How'd you do that!" Menma asked whilst jumping around energetically, clothes slightly torn after emerging from the ground. She didn't even have a chance to speak before he had jumped in front of her with star-filled eyes.

"I-I just used a variation of the shadow clone that I made for the bow." She stuttered, pushing Menma away slightly as he had gotten uncomfortably close.

Kushina spoke up before Menma could say any more. "Despite the lack of talking between you three, you managed to corner me through a crude yet effective strategy. I must say that I'm impressed that fresh graduates managed to pull that off.

"We have a ranged support, a front-line combatant and a fuinjutsu specialist, so the team is reasonably balanced, not to mention that Natsumi can switch to a melee combatant when necessary which is also a plus.

"Menma-kun, though you do specialise in close range combat, you can't win against other melee specialists who are superior to you like me by just swarming them with shadow clones. It might work on a ranged support since they have no way to take you all out, but to someone like me, all I need is just one hit to take out a clone. You jumped in first after me without confirming your role and plans with the team unlike Mito-chan and Natsumi-chan. It's good that you found a role in the plan the two devised and held me down, but in situations where the plan is more intricate, you would have been the odd one out and possibly killed.

"Mito-chan, though you did well, revealing yourself after activating the seal was a mistake. If I were someone who had mastered knowledge in ranged techniques, I could have easily fired some at you to stop you from providing chakra into the seal and escaped. Be careful of that in the future.

"Natsumi-chan, though this is the first time I have seen you in action, I must say that I am impressed that you can use a variation of the shadow clone to such a level. The accuracy was also on point, and you managed to lead me to where Mito-chan was waiting. I hope that your kenjutsu is just as sharp in the future, though I have to say that you will do well even if you were exclusively a ranged support for the team." Kushina said as she ended her small lecture. "No one on this team is normal by any standards." She muttered to herself with a sigh.

Natsumi's features brightened considerably as she had been praised by her mother for possibly the first ever time. She hung her head to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes, though Kushina had already moved onto lecturing Menma on his recklessness to notice.

Mito, sensing her discomfort, walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Even with her blank expression, her eyes held a comforting gaze as if telling Natsumi that it was alright.

Kushina, however, was still oblivious to what was happening behind her. "Alright, you are dismissed for today, I want each and every one of you in front of the Hokage's office by 7 tomorrow morning to begin your first D-rank mission!"

* * *

 **And another one...**

 **Nothing much to say, enjoy and leave a review!**


	8. 8 Zabuza Momochi

**Disclaimer: You know the rest**

* * *

 _"Take anything, just let atleast one of these kids grow up with their parents!" A man with spiky blonde hair said to the ghostly form that was floating behind him._

 _ **"...Anything? For ATLEAST ONE of your children to grow up with their parents?"**_ _the shinigami asked as if amused._

 _"Yes... anything."_

 _ **"Alright, I'll let you live, and I will follow your wish BY THE WORD."**_ _And as the ghostly form disappeared with a chuckle, the sealing was complete. Minato fell to the floor in exhaustion, panting from chakra exhaustion._

 _ **"By...the...word..."**_ _The words echoed as a headache assaulted Minato as he swiftly fell unconscious._

 _At the same time, Kushina had woken from a terrible headache, clutching her head whilst screaming in a makeshift hospital room within the walls of Konoha._

* * *

"This is Arrow, target is on the move."

"Great Red speaking, target moving towards stairs."

"...Silence speaking... Target confirmed..."

"This is base, good work, keep at it."

"Great Red speaking, why do we need to talk like this again?"

"Arrow speaking, its practice for future missions in other villages, though I doubt its usefulness. Why is your codename Great Red again?"

"Haven't you seen my new choice of clothing? Red's the best colour in the world!"

"...Target approaching site..."

As the sun rose for the residents of the Elemental Nations, three new genins were on a mission as shinobi

Namely, to catch Tora the Cat.

The Hokage insisted that it was an important mission for genins to take in order to develop their team work, communications and also experience for infiltration missions, though everyone knew that the truth was that the daimyo simply insisted on the cat being caught every time or his wife would give him an earful.

They were allowed to choose their codenames, and Natsumi simply went with the first thing that came to mind whilst Menma decided to choose his favourite... colour... as a codename. Mito didn't even speak, so Kushina thought it would be funny if she chose the name for her.

...It had been a full hour since they had accepted the quest, and to say that Tora was a master of the escape arts was a huge understatement. Natsumi wouldn't be surprised if it could even escape from a Kage's grasp.

It had been a full moth since they had formed a team, and Kushina still hadn't a clue as to her true identity, which in itself was depressing even though she knew that Kushina wasn't known for her intellect. She had yet to meet her father yet as her mother would always be the one to accept quests, so there was still a chance that they would recognise her, and so she continued to hope.

Half an hour of frantic searching later, Natsumi had managed to locate the demon in disguise from a vantage point, the next half hour was spent mostly observing it under Kushina's orders as she wanted to see most likely wanted to see how patient her team was. Mito was somehow multitasking between reading and keeping track of the cat whilst Menma seemed as if he was already at his limits. Since she had proven her senses to be far keener than the rest of the team, her mother included, she was allowed to keep her distance, much to her luck as she could relax whilst letting her enhanced hearing senses do all the work without the others finding out.

"Base to team, you may commence operation." Almost immediately after hearing the words come out from the comms, Menma had leapt towards the cat at chuunin level speeds. Natsumi could see that his whisker marks were slightly deeper than usual, meaning that he was currently utilising a small portion of Kyuubi's chakra.

The more tailed beast chakra a person used, the more they would lose themselves to the power. With training, one could theoretically hold off the madness, but she had learnt from Mito that both she and Menma could only use up to three tails without the power consuming them, even after their several years of training.

Despite the fact that the cat was good at escaping, it wasn't good at running away after being spotted. It didn't even know what hit it until Menma had already grasped its tail, dangling the cat in front of him.

"...mission accomplished..." Mito whispered as she appeared from behind a bush along with Kushina, who simply shunshin'd into the middle of the two.

"Good work team, I'm impressed Menma-kun managed to hold it in for so long, he cracked only five minutes in last time aswell!" She said whilst facing said boy, who now slightly red in the face.

"S-shut up! That was because the cat fell asleep and you still didn't let us go for it!" He retorted with his fist raised in the air.

"Anyways, Natsumi-chan, go and inform Minato-kun on the success, we'll be there shortly."

She nodded and leapt off from the building, heading towards the large building in the distance. As she moved, she realised that this would be her first meeting with her father in several years. Seeing that her appearance was radically different from when she began living in the forest, there was close to no hope of her father recognising her. She sighed in disappointment as she picked up the pace.

 _ **"Don't mind it imouto, We've been prepared for it to be like this for over five years now."**_ Kura reminded within her mind.

She made her way through the first and second floor, greeting others as they passed by her, eventually arriving outside a room labelled 'Hokage'.

She took a deep breath as she announced her presence.

"Team 12 member Natsumi reporting in." She said.

After a few seconds, she heard books shuffling as a familiar voice replied. "Come in."

As she entered, she came face to face with a blond haired man in his early 30's who was smiling lightly whilst reading a scroll on his desk. As he looked up, he froze on the spot as his eyes widened, staring at her in shock.

Almost immediately, He clutched his head with a hand as if in pain.

"H-Hokage-sama?" She asked with uncertainty. She certainly hadn't expected such a reaction from her father, but the hopes that she had buried within her mind resurfaced again. She watched expectantly as Minato let go of his head, face strained slightly, indicating that the pain was still present. The two continued to stare at each other, both refusing to blink.

"N-Natsum-" He began as her heart started to race, shoulders stiff in anticipation-

-until Kushina walked in with Menma and Mito in tow.

"Is everything alright here? Kushina asked, slightly perplexed as to why Natsumi and Minato were staring at each other.

Minato seemed to snap out of his shock and turned towards his wife with a slightly awkward smile. "I-It's fine, anyways, I see that you completed the mission."

"Mhm, Had them observe the cat for a while to test their patience, they all passed except Menma who seemed a little too eager to hit something." She said whilst giving said boy a stern look, causing him to step back in fear.

To say that Natsumi was irritated would be the understatement of the year. She was finally about to get an answer from her father until her team had walked in, what even was that timing?

 _ **"Eh, Uzumaki's were known to have abysmal luck, It seems that it's starting to kick in after a year of peace."**_ Kura answered sensing Natsumi's irritation.

She sighed. _"It's fine, nothing will change for now even if they do realise"_ She said mentally as she brought her attention back to the real world.

"Then how about another D-ran-" Minato began before being interrupted Menma.

"Why can't we do a C-rank already? We've been weeding gardens and catching cats for a whole MONTH, we can totally handle it dattebayo!" He shouted with his signature fist raise.

Kushina seemed to support the idea. "I'm pretty sure the team can handle even a B-rank by this point, just give it to them Minato-kun."

He seemed to contemplate for a moment, but gave in after Kushina pressed on with a look that seemed to say 'agree or you die'.

"O-ofcourse, I have one here actually, it's an escort mission for a bridge builder who needs you to guard him until he finishes the bridge building in Nami no Kuni. He should be in the village currently, so I'll go contact him, just wait here." He immediately called an ANBU to find said man and bring him to the tower.

A few minutes later, the same ANBU along with an old man, clearly drunk with a sake bottle in one hand walked in.

"Team 12, meet Tazuna the man you will be escorting to Nami no Kuni. Tazuna, meet team 12." Minato introduced.

"I see, the famous jinchuuriki twins and the wife of the Hokage, the young girl seems capable too, thank you for your generosity, Hokage-sama." He said after taking a sip from the bottle. Though Menma seemed like he wanted to complain about their supposed contractor, a glance from Kushina shut him up instantly.

Kushina spoke up first since Tazuna didn't seem to have anything further to say. "Team, I want you all up and ready to go in an hour, go and pack for a month's worth just in case there are any complications, and make sure you bring enough weapons, though that isn't a problem for you, right Natsumi-chan?" Natsumi nodded in response. "Good, now off you go, we will meet you at the gates in an hour for departure then, is that alright with you Tazuna-san?" She asked.

"Eh? Yeah, sure, whatever." He replied and left through the door before anyone could say anything further.

A tick mark appeared on Kushina's forehead as the temperature dropped slightly. "I will soooo kill him if he does that again dattebane, hehehe." She chuckled as Minato began to sweat slightly. It seemed that he knew that a pissed off Kushina was a bad Kushina rather well. "Team dismissed" She called as she disappeared behind the door whilst muttering something about disrespectful men. Mito and Menma shortly followed her out to pack for the mission.

Just as she was about to do the same, Minato spoke. "Wait."

She looked back at Minato, who was back to staring at her with a slightly worried expression.

"I-Is it possible to have a chat after you get back? I have a feeling that I know you from somewhere, but for some reason I can't remember, the headache is getting worse the more I think about it, so why don't we call it a day for now?" He said whilst rubbing his forehead.

Alarms started going off in her mind at the words. Headaches from trying to remember something? It sounded awfully like some seals she had read in the Uchiha clan library.

No, she couldn't jump at conclusions this early with such little information, but the hope that had been all but extinguished as of late sparked. "Fine by me, just call me once I get back."

He smiled. "Be safe, and take care of the Kushina, she can be pretty headstrong at times."

* * *

The journey to Nami was quite uneventful so far. Nothing major had happened, and was turning out to be just a regular escort mission, much to the dismay of Menma who was hoping to fight enemies. Kushina and Tazuna had gotten over their issues, and somehow the two had began to hit it off with stories during the journey. The bridge builder apparently had a daughter and a grandson with him and was telling Kushina about his daughter's embarassing moments in the past. Somehow Natsumi could already feel that said daughter would most likely skin the old man alive if she found out the topic of the discussion taking place.

 _ **"Look out, there's a puddle ahead."**_

Her face whipped towards the road, and just as Kura said, there was a large puddle in the middle of the road. Most people would ignore it, but there was definitely something wrong with it. For one, it hadn't rained in a while, and no puddle could remain on an open road for such a long time. The second was that there was a chakra signature coming it, confirming the fact that it was not a natural puddle, but a chakra signature.

She tapped her foot repeatedly in a pattern, catching the attention of her team. All graduates had to learn to communicate through simple gestures, the most common being through the tapping of the foot if they suspected that enemies were listening in on them.

 _"Puddle ahead, chakra detected, possible danger"_ The tapping implied. Kushina was immediately on guard and began tapping her foot aswell in response.

 _"Number of enemies?"_ Natsumi sniffed the air as they moved. She could smell two foreign objects or entities that most certainly weren't water within the puddle.

 _"Two. Both in puddle. Possible Genjutsu."_ She replied back. Though the entire team, including Mito who didn't know about the Soul-merge, didn't know how her sense of smell was superior at the above the level of an Inuzuka, they simply accepted it as one of the many quarks she had.

Kushina took the lead and proceeded to step onto the puddle, fists in her pocket ready engage any enemies, and as Natsumi had predicted two figures jumped out the moment they passed the puddle and proceeded to fling chains at their team leader. To the enemies' surprise, Kushina grasped the ends of both chains with her hands and pulled, dragging the two masked enemies off the ground and flinging them into the air.

Sparing no time, she instantly nocked an four arrows and shot each limb of the first enemy to immoblise him whilst Menma shot forward and smashed the second target into the ground, grinning madly as finally hit something for the first time in a week. Needless to say, said target lost consciousness upon impacting with the ground, legs bent the wrong way and chest slightly caved. The one she had shot was still screaming from pain on the ground, not daring to move as each and every movement brought a wave of pain from the areas where she had struck.

Kushina whistled slightly at the quick dispatchment of the enemy. "Good work team, at this rate we can actually hit B-ranked missions dattebane!" She walked up to the enemies before gasping. "Demon brothers? What are they doing here?" She muttered to herself before realisation dawned upon her. Her head whipped towards Tazuna, who was sweating bullets as he avoided her gaze.

"Tazuna-san, answer this question truthfully or we will turn back right now, WHY are the demon brothers after you?" She asked with her trademark stiff smile.

Hearing this, Tazuna caved as he began to explain the situation. According to him, a businessman by the name of Gatou had been monopolising all businesses in Nami no Kuni and bleeding it dry, and the bridge that they were currently building was the only hope Nami no Kuni had left as it would reconnect the residents to the world.

Gatou also seemed to be quite paranoid about the bridge, and was hiring mercenaries and missing-nin to kill Tazuna to prevent the completion of the bridge.

"Please-" He begged, "We don't have the funds to request anything higher than a C-rank, we will surely pay you back in full after Nami is back to normal again. If you leave now, countless will die of starvation!"

Kushina sighed as she turned back to the team, "What do you all think?"

"Of course we continue, we can't just let people die! Besides, this means we get to fight stronger people!" Menma exclaimed with a grin of anticipation.

"...Sure..." Mito muttered.

"Might aswell finish what we started." Natsumi added.

Kushina smiled at our decision and turned back to Tazuna. "It seems that the team wants to continue, you're in luck this time, but you better make this worth the effort."

They left after hiding the bodies of the two in a hidden location within the forest, sending a message to Konoha so that they could send more shinobi to confirm and retrieve the bodies. The two refused to talk about their employer even with the threat of death, so there was no reason to keep them alive.

* * *

They continued down the road for another hour without rest since the team wasn't tired, whilst Tazuna insisted that the sooner they reached his home, the better.

Eventually, they had to leave the ground as a boat was the only way to reach Nami no Kuni. Kushina stayed on the boat along with Tazuna whilst the three genins used the water-walking technique and moved alongside the boat, looking out for threats.

"Welcome to Nami no Kuni." Tazuna said with pride as they approached land again. They couldn't see much due to the mist, but they could still make out what seemed to be a boathouse as they approached the shore.

They kept at a pace along a small road within the forest, taking up a triangular formation around Tazuna in case of an ambush. Kushina stayed slightly behind, letting the three genins do most of the work since she would only step in if she deemed that the three of them weren't enough to deal with a potential situation.

It was quite boring, and Natsumi had no clue as to how Menma and Mito were keeping themselves entertained. Atleast she had a damned tailed beast within her mind cracking jokes and innuendos every minute to distract her from her boredom. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind as she approached Kushina who was leisurely strolling a few meters behind the rest of the team.

"Ano... Sensei?" She asked to catch her attention.

"Yes?" She replied with one eye opened to indicate that she was listening.

"Do you have a third child?" She asked quite blatantly, earning a confused look from her mother.

"No, I do-" She began until she suddenly clutched her head with a groan. Natsumi observed the reaction as she began to analyze the situation. She was about to press on until Kura stopped her.

 _ **"Don't push her any further Imouto."**_

 _"Why?"_ She asked mentally.

 _ **"Judging by the reaction she is showing, there's something we don't know influencing her sudden headaches. We don't know if there are any consequences if we break that barrier forcibly."**_

Natsumi, though unsatisfied, nodded in comprehension. It certainly made sense, and if she wasn't careful she could possibly hurt her mother. The risk was high as she still didn't know the exact reason as to why both Minato and Kushina reacted in such ways when they were reminded of her existence as their child.

"Ah, sorry about that, did you say anything Natsumi-chan?" Kushina asked with a smile.

 _'So she forgot the earlier question too? interesting?'_ Natsumi thought with a hand to her chin.

"No, it was nothing." She said as she returned to her earlier position., causing Kushina to raise an eyebrow, though she didn't question further.

Soon, they reached a small lake.

"We're nearly there, keep movin-" Tazuna began until a large object came hurtling from a nearby bush. "GET DOWN!" Kushina yelled as she swiftly jumped in front of the group, fists ready to engage.

Menma pushed Tazuna to the ground, barely in time to stop the object- a blade, from cutting the old man in half. Mito crouched to avoid the incoming blade whilst Natsumi dodged to the side, letting the large blade continue on its path towards a nearby tree., imbedding itself half-way through.

The blade itself was monstrously big with a curved end and a circle cut out at the far end of the blade, most likely used for decapitation. Along with its giant size, something about it screamed that it was not just a big sword.

Suddenly, a figure appeared standing on the handle of the sword that was wedged into the tree, looking down and ignoring the three genins whilst specifically focusing on Kushina.

"Well well well, what do we have here? Three kids, an old man and one adult, why don't you all move aside? I'll let you live if you just let me take out that old man there." The figure said with slight amusement.

It was a tall and muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes and small eyebrows. Bandages covered the bottom half of his face like a mask, and he wore his hitaiate on his forehead, though slightly shifted to the side. The man himself was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt, baggy pants with the striped pattern typical of Kirigakure and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.

"Can't do that, now why don't you get down here so I can kick your arse-ttebane !" Kushina yelled as send a threw a set of shurikens at the man.

"I know who you are," She continued as the man jumped down from the tree, sword now in his hands as he landed in the middle of the lake. "Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, current missing-nin and former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, you been hired by Gatou to take out Tazuna too?"

Zabuza didn't show any change in demeanor as he replied, "And if I was? Doesn't change the fact that you will die today, Kushina **Uzumaki-Namikaze** _ **,**_ wife of the Hokage." He brought his hand up and flashed a handseal as he raised a leg whilst pointing up with a hand, a meditative stance commonly used by ninjas.

" **[Ninja art: Hidden Mist Jutsu]** " He whispered, though it didn't escape Natsumi's enhanced hearing.

Like the name of the technique suggested, mist began to cover the area until she could no longer see more than a few meters in front of her. She instinctively moved closer to Tazuna along with Mito and Menma, arrow nocked in preparation for an attack from every direction.

To their surprise, a figure suddenly appeared between the three, large blade in one hand ready slash at the three of them. Out of instinct, Natsumi immediately shifted her aim and shot the arrow with more power than usual. Zabuza brought up a hand to catch the arrow, but to his surprise the arrow dragged him along as he caught onto it, causing him to skid backwards a few meters.

He opened his hand, dropping the arrow to find that his palm and fingers were bleeding from where he had grabbed the arrow. His eyes narrowed as he swiftly dodged a fist from Kushina and healed the cut with a minor healing jutsu.

"A good trick, I admit, but there's a limit to what small kids can do, don't think that'll work again." He said as he was swiftly caught up in a melee battle with Kushina. Natsumi nocked another arrow just in case, and watched as the two experienced shinobi fought at a speed most chuunin would fail to track.

It seemed as if Kushina had the upper hand, and as she dodged a swing of the giant blade, she brought her right hand for a killing blow to the chest, but instead all she hit was air.

"W-what?" She gasped in surprise, too late to pull back as she was tripped by Zabuza's foot and fell to the ground headfirst.

Zabuza stood to the side, sword over his head getting ready for a blow that would most certainly cut Kushina in two no matter what she did. Her chakra chains weren't the most effective in close combat, and certainly wouldn't be of use if Zabuza simply evaded them. Though they could hold down a tailed beast if she concentrated, she didn't have enough time to manifest them in order to block the monstrous blade. Natsumi could hear Menma shouting in fear and even the usually expressionless Mito was physically showing her worry

 _ **"...Take off the henge, you're going to need that extra brainpower and chakra."**_ Kyuubi said, and Natsumi nodded. The henge that she used to cover her features was a powerful one that was not only an illusion, but a true transformation that would make all changes physical. It required her to actively supply chakra along with constant attention, and overall it hindered her combat potential by quite a bit. Though she was still above most genins and possibly chuunins, she couldn't fight one of the Seven Swordsmen in such a state.

Furthermore, the henge actively cancelled out any special effects of the features she concealed, meaning that her sense of smell and hearing, despite being far above an average human's, were still significantly impaired.

She had to worry about the consequences afterwards, and since her team was technically the only witness that mattered, it wouldn't be too damaging since two of them were jinchuuriki whilst the other was the mother to the two (technically three).

" **[Henge... KAI]!"** She yelled as a burst of chakra erupted from her position, surprising both her teammates and causing Zabuza to pause momentarily to stare at her, eyes widening. Kushina was still on the ground but even so her gaze wondered from Zabuza towards her.

* * *

Kushina was not having a good day.

The mission her team took was going well at first, until the demon brothers appeared and attacked the bridge builder, Tazuna, who they were tasked to guard, increasing the rank of the mission to at the very least a B-rank.

Normally, she would have simply turned around and returned to the village and reported the mission as a false and put Tazuna's name on the blacklist, but she was sympathetic to the man's situation, and her team seemed to think so too.

She was lucky to be able to instruct her two children, and oh she was proud of them. Despite being only twelve and fresh genins, both were at the very least high-chuunin level if they unlocked their kyuubi chakra, and possibly borderline low- chuunin if regularly, and it was something that she took pride in as a parent.

Due to this, she was also worried as to how the third member of the team would fare. Would they feel inferior? Or perhaps they would be understanding of the situation?

Oh how wrong she was.

Despite her worries, the last member, Natsumi, was in every way either at the level or superior to her children, which in itself was quite shocking. Though she had an odd choice of weaponry and never used her sword, her speed and skill with the bow could get her to the rank of Jonin easily, not to mention that she was unnaturally fast on her feet.

It wasn't everyday you found an academy graduate that could potentially beat high level chuunins by herself. Her children were exceptions, as they had the Kyuubi chakra within them and also had years of training with Minato, who was viewed as the pinnacle of power within the village along with Sarutobi.

Her taijutsu was possibly her only weakness, but seeing that she materialised her bow and sword at will, there wasn't really a time she would need taijutsu at all since she could call the sword back to her hand even after being disarmed, at least according to her.

The girl had somehow befriended Sasuke at a young age, and seemed to be his one and only friend. Kushina was glad that at least someone was there to look out for the misfortunate child.

Despite all this, something felt odd when she was around her, but she could never really pinpoint what until very recently. Natsumi had asked her a very odd question as they approached wave, and though she couldn't recall the question or her initial answer, she did remember the headache that accompanied her answer.

This confirmed her suspicions that there was something that she was missing, and it was clearly related to the odd girl who claimed to be both a swordswoman and a huntress.

Immediately after that, they were attacked by the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, a former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. She had let her guard down and allowed Zabuza to get past her and to the children, but to her surprise the missing-nin was blown back by an arrow with cuts on his hand.

 _'Perhaps she was hiding her power, or she still is?'_ Kushina thought, slightly worried at the thought that the mysterious and prodigious child still had more up her sleeve.

She engaged Zabuza in combat, and when she finally thought she had found an opening, she realised that she was tricked and that it was only a feint to get her guard down.

Now she was facing a monstrous sword that was ready to come down upon her, ending her life and possibly the lives of her children aswell. She couldn't use her chains as they would be too slow. She had lost hope, until a sudden burst of chakra from the side caught both her and Zabuza's attention.

 **"[Henge...KAI]!"** A voice said as raw chakra washed over the surrounding area. She heard Zabuza gasp as she followed his gaze to where her team was currently standing, namely at Natsumi who was the source of the chakra burst.

Her eyes widened as the air around the huntress cracked, and shattered as a new figure but familiar figure appeared from underneath.

Animal ears sprouted from her head as the her pupils turned into slits, eyes glowing ominously. nine golden tails the same colour as her hair sprouted from her back as she grew a few inches in height, muscles toning slightly. Her canines grew sharper and longer, now noticeably bigger than the rest of her teeth, giving her a beastly appearance.

She gaped with her eyes wide at Natsumi's appearance. 'Kyuubi' was the first thought that went through her head. But that shouldn't be possible! The chakra of the Kyuubi was sealed into her two children, whilst the consciousness was sealed into-

"Agh!" She clutched her head in pain as a bad headache assaulted her. Why couldn't she remember who it was sealed into?

She calmed herself slightly as she brought her attention to the real world. Zabuza continued to stare at Natsumi, who was aiming an arrow straight at Zabuza's heart. The missing-nin seemed to be on guard, still wary from the previous attack from the girl and was prepared to block with his monstrous sword. The gold markings on the bow began to glow as the tip of the arrow began to release sparks. The air around the girl circled her, giving the appearance of a mini tornado. She muttered something under her breath, too quiet for Kushina to pick up as she unleashed the arrow.

At the last possible moment as soon as Natsumi released the arrow, Zabuza's eyes widened as he dodged to the side, abandoning the block stance he took earlier. She watched as the arrow that was nocked simply disappeared as soon as it was released, a howl of wind accompanying it.

She closed her eyes and hugged the ground as a blast of wind assaulted her. As soon as it stopped, she looked up again. Her jaw dropped in shock as the dust in the air cleared, revealing destruction along the flight path of the arrow. Any and everything along the path was either obliterated completely or sent flying somewhere else. A column of trees stretching over fifty meters along the arrow's path were uprooted, and she could see a large crater at the end of path.

Zabuza stood on the other side of the clearing, one hand holding the stump that was formally his right hand whilst panting heavily.

 _'...did she just blow an arm off an A-rank missing-nin!? And what the hell was with that power?'_ Kushina mentally screamed within her mind. She had only seen such destruction from high A-rank and S-rank jutsus, seeing it coming from a child who didn't even seem fatigued afterwards was quite frightening.

"You... you're not quite what you seem..." Zabuza said as he forcibly stopped the bleeding from his severed arm through the use of an emergency medical ninjutsu. He held his giant sword in his left hand and lifted it from the ground, going to show just how much strength and endurance the former Seven Swordsmen actually had.

Not allowing Natsumi to nock another arrow, he instantly closed the gap and went for a killing blow to the chest. Kushina was about to send a chain to stop him, until Natsumi's body exploded in light as the sound of steel clashing registered.

As the light died down, Kushina saw that Natsumi was no longer in the black hunting dress she was always in, but pure white armour of a design she had never seen before. A sleek black sword of equally strange design and markings was now in her hands, being used to block the massive blade Zabuza had swung at her. Despite the fact that she was not knowledgeable in weaponry other than common shinobi tools, even she could tell that the sword was not ordinary, perhaps the best she'd seen in all her life as a shinobi.

"HAAA!" With a yell, Natsumi stepped forward with her strange armoured heels and pushed Zabuza away, causing him to skid backwards slightly.

"A swordswoman now? Just how many tricks do you have?" He asked, breathing still unnatural, possibly from the lingering pain from his severed arm.

"More than you think, how about a duel then?" Natsumi said as she raised her sword and pointed the sharp end towards Zabuza.

"Hmph, duel accepted." He replied, doing the same with his oversized butcher knife.

Kushina's mind was starting to overload from what was occurring in front of her. One of her genins who he deemed to be mid to high chuunin at most was able to use an S-rank level technique, amputated the famed Demon of the Hidden Mist, and was currently challenging said man to a one on one sword duel.

It would be more realistic if this were all a dream, but unfortunately the fatigue she was feeling confirmed that this was all in fact real.

She wanted to help the twelve year old girl against the monster that was Zabuza, but she knew better than to interrupt a formal kenjutsu duel. Kenjutsu users had their own code of honour, one of which being that a duel between two kenjutsu users be a fair one on one. Despite the fact that they were shinobi, people specialised in utilising cowardly tactics to finish their missions at all costs, a kenjutsu duel was a different matter all together. It was an accepted fact amongst all shinobi from all over the Elemental Nations that the Shinobi Creed could be put aside when two Kenjutsu users fought, and this was one such situation.

As much as she wanted to aid her, she wouldn't stamp on her honour as a swordswoman. She would only intervene the moment she clearly lost the battle. It was her job to keep both Mito and Menma from interfering too, though Natsumi beat her to the punch.

Natsumi turned around and looked at the two jinchuurikis. "Don't interrupt, this is a formal duel." She said with a cold tone, the innocence that the team was used to completely absent.

Menma didn't seem to understand. "B-but, we can't just let yo-" He began.

"She's right, don't interrupt baka-red." Mito cut in from the side, giving Natsumi an encouraging nod, fully confident in her abilities despite the clear shock on her face after the power display earlier. Natsumi simply nodded back.

Did her daughter know Natsumi well? Though she didn't pay attention to the team's relationship with the huntress- now swordswoman, she would have known if the two had developed a close friendship over the last month, so that means they knew each other well beforehand.

For one, she was glad that her quiet yet intelligent daughter was close to someone during her time at the academy, but Kushina was confused as to why she wasn't told of this.

Wait... Right.

Mito probably would have told her if she asked, and would have kept silent indefinitely as long as she didn't specifically ask if she had made any friends.

Though Kushina used to ask such things of her during the first year of Mito's time at the academy, she soon gave up after realising that the chances of Mito befriending someone was as likely as Orochimaru being a good guy all along.

Menma looked like he wanted to say more, but seeing that even his mother wasn't doing anything, he gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.

Natsumi turned back to Zabuza and entered a stance, one which she had never seen before. Natsumi seemed to be a bundle of endless surprises, hell someone could tell her that the kyuubi-like girl was the one who killed Danzo and she would probably believe it after all the things she had seen today.

* * *

Entering her standard form with blade pointed to her side, Natsumi stared at her opponent who was slightly off-balance due to the loss of an arm. Despite this, the one-armed man returned the stare with eyes that of a predator, all playfulness from earlier gone. She could tell that the man was taking her seriously despite the fact that she was genin, though it made sense after her earlier display of power. If she could cause so much destruction with a single shot from her bow, who knew what she could do with a sword. He could feel Zabuza focusing his attention on Kuro, possibly intrigued by the strange design and on alert from the strange stance she was taking.

It was a given since she had developed it herself after countless bouts with Itachi and Sasuke. Kuro wasn't a single-edged sword like most on the Elemental nations nor was of the shape of any double-edged swords, meaning that creating her own style was the best way to go as opposed to using a style meant for other types of swords.

"Is there anything about you that is normal?" He deadpanned.

"Nope." She simply said, earning a chuckle from the swordsman. Natsumi didn't know how the swordsman could be so nonchalant about the loss of an arm, but she guessed that the missing-nin was prepared for such wounds since he decided to become a Shinobi.

"Enough of that now, block THIS" He yelled the last word and dashed forward at a frightening speed, sweeping his sword from the side. It was slightly off target, possibly due to his center of gravity being off due to the less of an arm, but it was accurate enough.

She brought Kuro to the side to guide it away from her instead of blocking. Despite being strong, she wasn't going to risk a contest of strength where she couldn't utilise Kuro's weight shifting ability since she was on the defense.

Before she could even think about counter-attacking, another Zabuza swung again, this time aimed to decapitate her. She crouched before she had to dodge yet another swing.

 _'Fast!'_ She thought as she continued to dodge strikes, not finding any room to begin her offensive. She gritted her teeth in frustration as her fighting style was not designed for continuously defending, and her stamina was being chipped away slowly.

This was Zabuza's goal, to not give her the chance to attack. He had most likely figured from the shape of the sword that it wasn't made for defending but for repeated attacks, and was trying to kill her without giving her to use any gimmicks she might have.

Fortunately however, Zabuza stumbled slightly on one of his swings due to his right hand not being present to stabilise him. Realising his mistake, he immediately pulled back, but it was too light.

 _ **"NOW!"**_ Kura called as Natsumi jumped up and brought her blade down at the giant sword in Zabuza's hand, increasing the weight to 1000x an instant before the two blades collided.

" **[Weight of the World]!"**

The earth shook as the ground beneath Zabuza caved along with the ground within a ten meter radius. Cracks appeared within the earth and spread from the area of impact towards the corners of the clearing and into the nearby forest. Zabuza's feet buckled slightly as his remaining arm bent from the force. She could see that his hand was trembling under the weight, and in an instant he retreated before she could cripple his only remaining hand. Looking carefully, she could see Kuro had managed to dig halfway into Zabuza's sword in the short exchange.

Natsumi could audibly hear two jaw's drop from behind her, most likely from Menma and Kushina. She had actively used chakra this time unlike her battle with the masked man a year ago, increasing its power and efficiency. The attack was extremely cost-effective, as she barely used any stamina for it due to the fact that the strength behind it was mainly from the weight-shifting itself, but its weakness was that she could only use it with a downward swing whilst she was airborne, or else she would either: 1- lose her balance completely. 2- crush herself from the weight or .3- damage herself more than the enemy.

Despite this, it was incredibly effective against enemies who were unaware of Kuro's property, as it would 9/10 times completely crush the enemy if they were caught off-guard.

Zabuza, however, didn't seem to be taking chances, and had fully focused all his strength on the block, most likely cautious that she would pull something like the arrow earlier.

That was what had saved his life.

"You know kid, are you just the Kyuubi in disguise or what? The ears, tail and strength all kind of fit." He said in a completely serious tone as he stretched his leg. His words actually had merit to be honest, and nobody present could question it even if she said the claim was correct despite how absurd it may seem.

 _ **"He's not going to give you the chance to do that again, you need to end this quickly or else you'll lose in the long run if he keeps going on the offensive"**_ Kura said and she nodded in agreement.

She slammed her sword into the ground again, causing a cloud of dust to form around her, blocking her from Zabuza's vision. Using her hearing senses, she confirmed that Zabuza was still stationary in anticipation of an attack from any direction, and used the chance to charge up an attack.

Gathering all her tails to a single point above her head, black and negative white chakra began to gather from the surrounding air and slowly began forming a dark ball. She could hear collective gasping from her team behind her, who could still see what she was doing as they recognised the attack she was using. In fact, it would be strange if the three of them DIDN'T recognise what she was about to do.

As the ball formed, the pure power energy being emitted from it dispersed the cloud of dust, revealing Zabuza who was still in his defensive stance. His eyes widened as he saw what she was doing.

"I thought this was a kenjutsu duel you brat!" He shouted.

"I proposed a duel, not a kenjutsu duel, I'm still playing within the rules, your fault that you accepted." She replied with a foxy grin, face strained slightly from the amount of chakra being used.

 **"[Bijuudama]"**

* * *

 **And another one done... wait, its been two days you say? Oh how could I miss a day! We'll here's a longer than usual chapter for you, including a Zabuza fight.**

 **The entire scene is different mostly from Canon, since I don't see how it could go exactly the same with the same lines now that Kakashi isn't here, that and I'm just too lazy to watch canon naruto again to find the exact lines.**

 **I did state that Natsumi would get destroyed under norma conditions, and as you can see here that does start happening at the very start until Zabuza slips up due to his missing arm and allows Natsumi on the attack again. If it were a norma where both were on each other from the very beginning, Natsumi would have been beat. Defeating Zabuza would be a combination of her using his lack of knowledge over her abilities and him underestimating her to her advantage and dealing crippling blows to him early.**

 **In terms of RAW POWER OUTPUT, Natsumi probs has most of the cast beat. she's got some attacks up her sleeve at this point that are anti-fortress noble phantasm level. I'd rank a bijuudama at anti-army level, judging from what I've seen from it compared to Lancer's Gae Bolg being thrown in UBW.**

 **At this point, it's not that her max strength is weak, it's more of that she lacks control over most of her power.**

 **The Bijuudama is a given that she has, she's a chakra construct like the Kyuubi, and has the tails, why the hell not.**

 **On to Minato and Kushina. I will now state that I absolutely hate excessive plotting in the background with my life, which is why I'm not creating an OC who locked their memories for his/her evil purposes, but instead I'm just making it a one-off issue to keep it nice and simple. I originally was just going to have them forget Natsumi, end of story, but seeing that its been half a decade since it happened and why Minato lived was never mentioned, I decided to wrap those two issues up simultaneously.**

 **Some people might be put off by it, but I find it a better solution than just having them forget for no reason.**

 **But anyways, I hope you enjoyed. That was the first ever fight scene I ever wrote, tell me how it went, did you enjoy it? hate it? leave a review!**


	9. 9 Mana (Natsumi Stats included)

"...He escaped." Natsumi said as sweat dripped down her face, legs shaking slightly from the attack she had just used. Since her organs weren't necessarily needed for her to function as a chakra construct, her body was still modeled after a human's due to her original nature, and a lack of chakra would be the same as regular exhaustion to a human.

A large crater of over 80 meter radius could be seen a fair distance from where she stood, the point of impact of her **[Bijuudama]** , dust cloud still yet to fully disperse. The attack was meant to take Zabuza out once and for all, but she couldn't smell and lingering remains of him, meaning that he had somehow escaped. Even if he was completely obliterated, he would have left small traces of his smell around the blast area, but no such smell was present.

She had made sure that Zabuza was in no state to Shunshin out when she used her attack, but what was surprising was that she sensed another presence the moment the tailed beast bomb was fired before both the mystery person's and Zabuza's presence disappeared almost completely.

 _'So he had backup available'_ She sighed slightly irritated that she wasn't able to kill Zabuza. It would have saved them a lot of trouble in the long run, now they would most likely have to face off again but purely on Kenjutsu as Zabuza wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

"W-what are you?" Someone asked from behind could see Menma on guard, staring at her with wary eyes whilst Mito seemed to be slightly distant, possibly going through everything she just saw. Kushina was... Unconscious?

Nevertheless, it was a fact that both Menma and Mito seemed to by slightly wary of her.

 _ **"They're probably considering what Zabuza said earlier, about you being me and all"**_ Kura said with hint of amusement.

 _'...Want to join me on a prank?'_ She asked, grinning inwardly.

 _ **"Of course."**_ Kura grinned back before taking control of the body. She changed her body posture to be more intimidating whilst ignoring the pain in her legs from chakra exhaustion.

 **"...Humans..."** She, or rather Kura growled.

Menma began to panic seeing this, whilst Mito stood still for a few seconds before her eyes widened in realisation. The stoic girl knew that Natsumi was a prankster, and most likely caught on to her intentions and was playing along.

Tailed Beast chakra began to cover him and took a stance as if ready to leap at her at any second. "WHERE IS NATSUMI?" He shouted whilst growling.

Natsumi couldn't hold it in any longer and fell to the floor in laughter. Even the stoic Mito could be seen with a hand over her mouth holding in a chuckle. Menma stood there, confused as to why everyone was laughing and evidently embarrassed from the fact that he was left out of whatever was going on.

"You actually...Believed it!" Natsumi managed to get out between her gasps from laughter. Menma looked on for a moment before he realised what had just happened. He hung his head, but the two could still see that he was fuming slightly.

"Anyways, what happened to Kushina?" Natsumi asked. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen a Bijuudama before, so it didn't make sense for her to faint of all things.

"She started clutching her head after you started charging that... Bijuudama... up, and fell unconscious whilst screaming afterwards." Mito explained, causing Natsumi to frown slightly

Now THAT was sending alarms off in her head. From Kushina's reactions earlier when she had hinted at her having a third child, it was quite possible that the battle had reminded Kushina of her child's existence. If that was the case, she didn't know what would happen if she woke up. There was a chance that she would recognise her, and Natsumi would need to prepare herself for such a situation.

"Alright, I'll explain everything when she's up, let's get moving for now." She said whilst motioning at Tazuna, who looked as if he had seen a ghost, to lead the way.

Suddenly, her legs failed her for a moment as she dropped to her knees. It seemed that the chakra exhaustion was beginning to catch up to her.

"Natsumi!" Menma jumped forward in worry to support her.

"It's fine... just a little... tired..." She managed to mutter as she forced herself up.

"I can carry you there you know?" Menma suggested.

"No, I'll rest when we get back, I'll be fine for now, carry Kushina and move along" She replied back, too prideful to admit that she required help. Menma looked like he wanted to retort, but simply nodded and hung an arm around Kushina before leaping off towards where Tazuna was heading.

Mito looked at her for a moment. "Explain...Later..." She said as she followed the others, leaving her in the clearing by herself.

Catching her breathe, she dismissed her armour for her hunting dress as it was more comfortable for casual wear and moved along towards, not daring to use anymore chakra in fear that it would aggravate her body further.

Due to her being a full chakra construct, all she needed to survive was chakra, and chakra exhaustion was basically akin to her being very, very hungry. If she were to use more now, she doubted that she would even make it to wherever Tazuna was taking them.

Despite this, she was naturally as fast as chuunins without the use of chakra, and was steadily catching up to the trio not including Kushina, who seemed to be heading towards a particular house. As Natsumi moved, she could see the situation of the people who lived in the area. People were dressed in rags, most even skinnier than the slum dwellers of Konoha. She grit her teeth in frustration at her inability to help in the situation, and swore that she would make the one responsible pay.

The door was left open for her, and inside she could see her two siblings sitting down with Tazuna and another woman, most likely the daughter that he had been talking about on the trip. Kushina was nowhere to be seen, but she could still sense here chakra signature within the house, meaning that she was most likely left to rest in a spare room.

"Ah, you've arrived, do come and sit down." Tazuna said, gesturing Natsumi towards the spare space opposite her siblings. She nodded and walked over, ignoring the gazes of Menma and Mito who seemed to be transfixed on her fox-like features. Before Tazuna could reach for one more cushion, she raised a hand to stop him and sat down on the spot with her tails curled under her. She dismissed the upper layers of her dress as it was still dirty from the dress, letting it burst into particles of light before fading.

Her two teammates seemed to exchange glances briefly, clearly unaware of what she just did, whilst Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to dismiss it as a shinobi trick.

They sat in an awkward silence, none daring to speak up. Seeing this, Tazuna decided to get the introductions under way first.

"Alright, now that we are comfortable, Team 12, meet my daughter Tsunami. Tsunami, meet team 12. The blonde haired kid is Menma, the red-haired one is Mito and the...fox-like... girl there is Natsumi. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here." He said with a nervous chuckle, but his words had managed to break the tension between them. "Do get our guests some tea Tsunami." Tazuna added as his daughter nodded with a smile before disappearing into another room.

Before the two could even begin the interrogation, Natsumi put up a hand. "Wait for Kushina to get down, I'm not explaining this twice."

The two nodded as they received their tea from Tsunami. The three talked about other subjects for quite a while until footsteps reached their ears. Looking over, Natsumi could see Kushina slowly limping towards them.

"N-Natsumi..." She muttered as she made her way over.

"Natsumi!" She shouted this time as she, to her shock and surprise, embraced her with tears running down her face.

Instinctively, Natsumi pushed her away, causing Kushina's eyes to widen.

"Natsumi...?" She muttered again, staring right at her. "It's me, I'm your-"

"I know, I'm just... not prepared yet." Natsumi said with her head hung slightly, not daring to look up.

"...H-have, you known... All this time? Since when?" Kushina asked, pain evident in her voice.

"...Of course I did, how could I forget? Six years isn't that long when you think about it."

She heard Kushina gasp with a hand over her mouth, clearly surprised by what she admitted.

"Did you run away by yourse-"

"You and Minato forgot to include me in the blood seal. I was... rejected." Natsumi said calmly as she slowly reached out to the opening in her dress just above her breasts. She pulled it down slightly to reveal a large cross-shaped scar that she never fully healed to remind herself of who she was, despite the fact that she could heal it any time she wanted.

She had tried to put the painful memories behind, but she found that the best ways to deal with them was to just accept them as a part of who she was, for the memories of the past were still a part of you after all.

She could hear gasps from around the room as they stared at the large cross that shouldn't belong on her white skin. Silence followed afterwards, no one saying anything. Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to have caught onto what was happening, though Menma seemed to be confused. Figures, he couldn't figure it out unless you spelt it out in front of him.

 _Kushina POV_

"T-that... what happened?" Kushina asked, though she would rather not know.

She had awoken to a headache accompanied by memories, memories of the past that had been... locked... to her, one way or the other. And to her horror, she realised that she had a third child, Natsumi. Yes, she recalled the times she used to look after her three children when they were still in their cribs, how could she forget those moments?

How could she?

She had immediately made her way to downstairs to where her children, ALL her children, were waiting along with Tazuna and another woman, most likely the daughter Tazuna had kept going on about. Kushina could see Mito and Menma sitting quietly, unusual for the latter child who was usually louder than performers. The two seemed to be staring at something. She followed their gaze, and gasped as she Natsumi sitting there, fox-like ears, tails curled under her acting as a cushion with her eyes shut as if in meditation.

She wasn't dreaming, it really was her child, but it felt... different. The nine tails under Natsumi immediately put her on alert. Why was her child's appearance so similar to the Kyuubi's? Had it somehow managed to take over her? But that was impossible, the chakra of the tailed beast was sealed into her two younger children.

And when she had desperately tried to reach out to her, she had pushed her away, was this the price?

"Threw me straight into the bars outside the estate and into the river, spent a night floating around until I ended up near the Uchiha estate, lived in the forest for a few years until the massacre so I moved in to keep Sasuke company." Natsumi replied to her question.

Kushina was horrified to see such a scar on a child so young. If the wound was just slightly more to the left then it certainly would have pierced her heart and killed her instantly, how she survived such a wound for a night was a question in itself.

She froze at the prospect of her eldest dying, without her ever realising for that matter! And she had lived in the forest for several years? Why hadn't she called them?

"But, why didn't you call for us?"

"Because I didn't know why I was forgotten. If I were brought back, I didn't want to live under a household simply due to pity." She replied.

Kushina took a deep breath before choosing her next words carefully. There was no point going further into Natsumi's past, that would be for another time, when they were more acquainted. It hurt to know that she knew almost nothing of her eldest child's past, but forcing her wasn't something she would ever do. It was good enough to know that she was alive for now.

"Natsumi... This may sound ridiculous, but me and Minato wer-" She began before being interrupted.

"I know." Natsumi said, still not looking her in the eye.

"W-what?" She said in surprise. Had Natsumi known all along that they couldn't remember due to inteference?

"I figured it out on the way here. You seemed to be reacting with pain whenever any mention of me went around, I figured something had happened, now sit down before you ask any more, I'll only answer three more questions for today before I retire." Natsumi said swiftly before she could make her own conclusions. Ignoring the confused looks of Menma, she sat down opposite to Mito, who seemed strangely calm, as if she had known about Natsumi's identity all along.

...Had she? It wasn't important for now though, something she could ask later.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" Natsumi said, looking up for the first time and scanning the room. Kushina gazed at glowing turquoise eyes that weren't of her nor Minato's shade of blue, distinctly different from what she remembered Natsumi's eyes were like back when she was still a child. Though she hadn't paid any attention to it, the emerald fringes covering the front of Natsumi's hair was also unlike any shade of green she had ever seen, another mystery she would need to look into.

Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to have sensed the atmosphere and remained quiet, both drinking their tea and observing with interest.

After a minute or so, Mito put her hand up, surprising the members of team 12 as she was never one to usually take the initiative.

"Are you human?" She asked rather bluntly. Kushina felt like throwing a mock punch at the girl to punish her for her rudeness, but felt that it was not an appropriate moment to do so.

"No." Natsumi replied with equal bluntness, causing Menma to choke slightly as he hadn't expected her to admit it so openly. Knowing her son, he probably still didn't figure out Natsumi's connection to the family even after the exchange earlier, but that who just who he was.

"Can you explain that in detail?" Kushina pressed, hoping to learn more about the daughter that she had... had forgotten... for over half the girl's life. Despite the fact that it wasn't her fault, she felt that it was her responsibility no matter what to have looked after her family, to know that a girl, her own child, had to survive in the woods by herself for several years damaged her pride as a mother quite heavily.

"I'm a tailed beast, the Kyuubi to be specific." Natsumi replied whilst reaching for her own cup of tea, ignoring Tazuna and his daughter who now had the same reaction as Menma earlier.

Despite hearing such a thing, Kushina's heart almost skipped a beat, not out of excitement but simply because her thought processes froze for a moment.

Her daughter, the Kyuubi?

Despite the appearance Natsumi took up, she thought that the girl had merely took up the appearance of the nine tails due to personal reasons. Hearing her claim to be the very thing that took so many lives on that terrible night was something that she wasn't expecting.

Yet despite this, she kept quiet, hoping for Natsumi to expand.

Seeing the blank look on her face, Natsumi shrugged. "What did you expect would happen when you seal the soul by itself into someone, they merge! I'm Natsumi yet at the same time I'm also the Kyuubi, you could say I'm both." The sinking feeling within her multiplied, she felt as if she would faint at any moment.

Noticing that no one else was saying anything, Mito spoke up again, "So you are also the Kyuubi, you say?" She asked, as if asking for proof. Sensing it, the Natsumi closed her eyes for a second, before opening them again, revealing familiar bloodthirsty eyes that still haunted Kushina to this day.

 **"Exactly as I said it, Imouto."** Her daught- no, the Kyuubi spoke in a distorted voice that no human could possibly possess, sending shivers down their spine. **"Enjoying my chakra, you two?"** The being said again, now in a slightly more cheerful tone.

The fact that such a...thing... was in the form of her long forgotten daughter angered Kushina to the point where she felt like punching the Kyuubi out of the body, but even someone as hot-blooded as her knew what this meant.

Her daughter was no longer the same.

Though the memories were vague as they had only returned a short time ago, she could still remember the cheerful child that brought joy to both her and Minato, how did it end as such? How could that someone end up become like this?

She already knew the answer.

Natsumi had already said that it was a result of the sealing of the soul. They were the ones who decided to do such a thing, she and Minato were responsible for thi-

She calmed herself as she noticed that she was hyperventilating. It wasn't fitting for a kunoichi to show such unsightly behavior in front of others, civilians nonetheless.

 **"I don't hate you, you know?"** The distorted voice sounded again, causing Kushina to lift her head slightly, only to be greeted by glowing turquoise eyes in slits.

"W-what, but-"

 **"Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze is a person who has difficulty in hating anyone...** _ **"**_ She said before pausing for a moment, **"I will take my leave for now, I've answered the three questions and allow you all to think, perhaps allow my little brother there to actually take in the information'ttebayo"** She added before standing up with a bow and heading for the door, outer layers of her clothes materialising.

...As a mother, she had failed. No matter how much it wasn't her fault, she had still failed. She could feel tears rolling down her face as she heard the all too familiar verbal tick being said by the distorted voice.

But would she give up? No, she was an Uzumaki after all.

She reached out with a hand and tapped her forgotten daughter's shoulder just before she was about to exit.

She had no right to intrude on her life, that she knew, but it didn't mean she couldn't start from the beginning. With this in mind, she extended a hand towards her.

"Friends then?" Kushina asked. Natsumi seemed stunned for a moment, before a small smile appeared on her face.

"Sure!" The girl said as she shook the hand she had extended before disappearing into the woods.

The house was silent as no one dared to speak (Though Mito was nibbling on the cookies that were present on the table). The awkward atmosphere continued until a certain headstrong blond decided to speak up.

"So who is she really?" Menma asked as Kushina gaped at him, speechless that he still couldn't put it together.

"THAT WAS YOUR SISTER, YOUR IDIOT"

 _Natsumi POV_

 _ **"Well that worked quite well"**_ Kura commented as Natsumi jumped from branch to branch, speeding through the forest with her beloved bow strapped to her back.

She was surprised when her mother had extended the offer to friendship. It seemed that she had realised that if she wanted to be any part of her life, she would need to start from the beginning, and it was something that she could respect, though it was unsurprising that Menma was still clueless even after she had dropped so many hints.

Her chakra level was still low, but now at a level where she could use it to boost her speed ever so slightly.

Arriving at a small clearing a fair distance away from Tazuna's house, she sat down in the middle and closed her eyes as if in meditation. Reaching within her consciousness, she opened her eyes again to be greeted by an open field, very unlike where she was before. Only a few steps away stood a female figure with emerald green hair, looking at her with a small smile plastered on her face.

Her inner mindscape hadn't changed much since the soul merge and as such she didn't spend long looking. She delved deep into her mind again, this time going through her own memories, unlocking some locked away memories of Kura's past at the same time.

Amongst those memories were some foreign to both her and Kura.

At first, she was confused as to why there we a few memory shards of a certain green clad huntress and sword wielding King of Knights floating around within her mindscape, but over time she came to the conclusion that these memories weren't purposely left here as the majority of the memories were simply of the huntress walking around or of the King of Knights sitting on a throne, unimportant memories that certainly held no purpose. Kura had concluded that they were simply accidental shards that were left behind as a result of the two invading her mind at a young age.

Though most of them were just random fragments, there were a few that stood out, which told of the kind of lives the two lived, and from what she saw both were just as tragic. She hoped that she could atleast change something like the King of Knights had said.

 _ **"It's time, the concentration of chakra is currently at its highest during the day."**_ Kura called reminding her of their original objective.

Ever since viewing the memories, she had been attempting to replicate some of the attacks the two had shown in her memories, specifically the attack the huntress had used against the boar, **[Phoebus Catastrophe]** She had called it. It was definitely in a foreign tongue, yet she could still understand it, another mystery she would have to think about another time.

Her instincts told her that she could use the attack, yet nothing happened every single time she attempted to use it in the past years. Her bow would build up energy, vibrate slightly as if it would succeed, but the chakra buildup would disperse immediately before firing.

It was then that Kura had told her that the energy type being used was similar, yet different to the chakra that she was used to. She had delved deep into Kura's memories since then to uncover any information on the energy source being used, and only recently did her efforts bear fruit.

Most up and coming nin's would learn of the composition of chakra during the academy years, but even those were simply what scholars thought to be true, as very few could interact with the very foundations of chakra without suffering severe backlashes.

Therefore there were very few who knew anything about the truth of chakra's origin except the fact that it came from the God Tree, one of those few was Hagoromo Otsutsuki, otherwise known as the Ridudou Sennin, the Sage of Six Paths. The old sage seemed to have a habit of leaving his work laying around, and through Kura's memories Natsumi managed to gather enough information.

The original source of energy, Mana, which used to be present everywhere until the appearance of the God Tree. The God Tree had 'tainted' all Mana it came into contact with, turning it into Chakra, a similar yet different form of energy. The process of transformation was sped up as Kaguya Otsutsuki, mother of Hagoromo, consumed an apple from the God Tree, obtaining chakra for herself and all humans that came after her.

From what she could see through the memories, mana was far more versatile than chakra, despite being harder to manipulate.

It was clear that the God Tree had added his own taint into Mana to create Chakra. Following this logic, it meant that it was also possible to remove the taint, though very risky.

 _ **"The old man's famous [Creation of All Things] was based off something he called the [First True Mystery], or was it the [First True Magic]? Don't remember too clearly. Though apparently his technique paled in comparison to the 'True Magic' as he called it. His technique could only create non-living things, meaning that Souls and Energy such as Mana and Chakra were far out of his league."**_ Kura had told her when she asked if she knew anything of Mana. It was this that encouraged her to study the splitting of Chakra into its base form, Mana, a feat that only the Sage of Six Paths had managed to perform.

Despite this, she was born an Uzumaki, and Uzumaki's never gave up.

today would be her first attempt to perform the splitting of Chakra into Mana. She had already put up a seal around the clearing to make sure there wouldn't be any uninvited guests in case something went wrong.

 _"I'm ready, let's begin"_ She mentally called to Kura as she let out a nervous sigh before tensing her muscles in anticipation.

Minutes passed as she simply sat there, hands extended as if in a prayer, and only after half an hour did a small flicker of chakra appear upon her palms, dancing around her hand. Sweat trickled down Natsumi's head as she concentrated on keeping the chakra physically manifested.

 _ **"All negative components removed, go ahead"**_

Negative chakra was said to be the most volatile of the what people believed to form chakra itself, removing it would severely reduce the chances of the experiment exploding in her face. Hearing the confirmation, she nodded and closed her eyes.

 _Analyzing initial components_

 _God Tree taint identified_

 _Isolation of selected energy_

This was the hard part. The taint itself was easy to detect once you knew what you were looking for, the first step of separation was to isolate the taint from the Mana itself. Such an action required identifying every single essence of the taint before moving it away from the Mana, and unless you were used to the action it would be nigh impossible.

Fortunately for her, she had been at it for several years, and the action had become second nature to her.

 _Isolation complete, commencing separation_

 _separation complete, commencing deletion of taint_

The final step, which required her to completely destroy all essence of the taint without losing control. The last time she had tried it, she had been knocked unconscious for a full night. At least this time she had a failsafe ready in case things didn't go as planned that wouldn't leave her vulnerable if she went out.

Only a second passed in the real world, but to her it seemed like days as she swiftly destroyed all traces of the God Tree's taint.

Though she didn't notice, she had almost stopped breathing at one point, focusing purely at the task at hand. Only after a minute did she open her eyes again as she gasped for breath. She swiftly looked back down at her hand, eyes widening as she saw blue, string-like particles floating around just above her palm. She could sense that it was definitely not chakra, meaning only one thing.

"I... Succeeded?" She said in a quiet voice between pants. Though tired on the outside, she was more excited than she had ever been, why wouldn't she be? She had just past a block in her progression that had been there ever since her training had started, with this she could finally progress on her training.

 _ **"Congra- WATCH OUT!"**_ Kura began before ending it with a panicked yell. Natsumi didn't have a chance to register the words as she felt all the chakra in the nearby region being separated back into Mana, with her hand at its origin, almost like a chain reaction.

"A chain reaction!? Bu-AGH!" She began before crying out in pain. It felt as if her body was tearing itself apart from the inside. It only took her a moment to realise what was happening.

 _"The chain reaction is affecting me as well since I'm a chakra construct..."_ She concluded as she desperately tried to find a way out of the predicament, but it was too late as she collapsed screaming. Her last thoughts were that she was at least safe with the sound-blocking seals installed.

She awoke in a sea of darkness, never ending darkness similar to what she saw during her soul merge, yet she felt at peace.

 _'Where am I?"_ she thought as she tried to turn her head, but to her surprise she was locked in place and couldn't move an inch. She attempted to call out to Kura, but found that communications were lost between them, at least for the time being.

 **"** **CONNECTION TO ROOT DETECTED** **"**

...What?

She could hear something, but she couldn't understand at all.

Not the 'another language' type of can't understand, but she simply couldn't comprehend the nature or origin of the sounds at all. It was as if it wasn't meant to be understood in the first place, yet her instincts told her that it was definitely saying something coherent.

 **"** **CONNECTION TO ROOT DETECTED** **"**

She tried to turn around to face the sound, yet to no avail.

 **"** **BODY OF FOREIGN ENTITY: CHAKRA CONSTRUCT** **"**

She simply gave up and allowed herself to float in the never ending abyss, listening to the autonomous voice which she couldn't attribute to a human, the voice was completely out of the world, something humans weren't meant to comprehend.

 **"** **ENTITY STATUS: CRITICAL** **"**

She listened...

 **"** **ALTERING BODY COMPOSITION TO ENSURE SURVIVAL** **"**

And listened...

 **"** **ALTERATION COMPLETE, COMMENCING EJECTION** **"**

Until her mind suddenly shut down.

 **Hey people, it's me again, alive this time.**

 **Here the confrontation occurs, and the relationship between mother and daughter starts from the very beginning, as friends. I find that some stories with abandoned!naruto are either forgiving and back to mother daughter relationship way too fast, or naruto just becomes an edgelord. This is neither, and relationship is literally starting anew.**

 **Some might be confused as to what happened in the later half, and that's normal since I couldn't really find a good way to explain it without doing a slight info dump that might have been slightly confusing to some, so here's a small recap that's simplified.**

 **-Mana is the original form of Chakra, before it was tainted by the God Tree.**

 **-The God Tree is said to be a God, so for the sake of the story, the God Tree is one of the primordial gods in the Nasu/DxD verse.**

 **-From deduction based on Mito and Menma's future identities, you can conclude that the Elemental Nations is the dimensional gap before it became a void of nothingness. This also clarifies that all this is taking place FAAAAR back in the age of gods, WAAAAAY before canon starts.**

 **-Natsumi tries to split chakra back into Mana so she can recreate the abilities she sees in Arturia and Atalanta's few memories.**

 **-Causes chain reaction, splitting all the chakra within her into mana at the same time. Since she is a chakra construct, literally rips her body from the inside.**

 **-The action opens an (incomplete) path to Akasha**

 **-Akasha tries to heal her as it is it's nature to keep everything in its original form (might not be in canon, it is for this fanfic, deal with it)**

 **-Changes Natsumi from a chakra construct to a Mana construct, VERY similar to a servant.**

 **-Yes, she now has pseudo servant like strength, speed and stats, albeit a low-tier one. She can no longer use chakra (goodbye bijuudama), but at the same time gains access to other powerful tools.**

 **-She did NOT see nor go anywhere near the swirl of the root itself, meaning she didn't gain any true magic or anything (yet). She only entered the space where Akasha was for a very short period of time, accidently too.**

 **Some might be wondering why I'm powering her up already, and yes, she will be pretty powerful compared to Naruto characters after this chapter, but you have to remember that I'm not going to stick to the narutoverse for long, literally gonna ditch it during the shippuden timeskip.**

 **She's gonna be dropped in the Age of Gods, and from what I can see, if she were to stay as is, she would get absolutely DESTROYED by any and everything in the early Age of Gods, therefore I'm powering her up slowly but steadily during the narutoverse arc.**

 **Below is a stat sheet for Natsumi currently. Power levels in fanfiction are very wild, and since readers usually jump from fanfic to fanfic, having a guide like this helps readers alot to know exactly what kind of level the MC or character is at.**

 **I have literally been bombarded with email and message requests to put a servant stat sheet in for clarification, so here it is.**

 **Name: Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze**

 **Alignment: True Neutral**

 **Strength: E+ (C) With Reinforcement**

 **Luck: E+**

 **Mana: A+**

 **Agility: D+ (C+) With Reinforcement**

 **Endurance: D (D+) with Reinforcement**

 **N.P: B - EX**

 **Noble Phantasms: (think of her weapons and armour as such, currently they are not N.P's, but as story progresses that will change, this is for sake of convenience of the stat sheet)**

 _ **Heiwakuro/Yami**_

 **Type: ?**

 **Range: ?**

 **Maximum amount of targets: Unknown**

 **Rank: B - EX**

 **Heiwakuro, otherwise known Yami, is a blade created through the soul merge of the beings Natsumi Uzumaki Namikaze and the Kyuubi, Kurama. It is the collective manifestation of Excalibur, Clarent and Rhongomyniad, the three weapons Natsumi witnessed during Arturia's memory of the Battle of Camlann. As a chakra construct, Natsumi can only use the sword's base function of weight shifting. The sword contains 4 limiters, indicated by the 4 red circles on the blade itself. Limiters can only be removed once the user has access to Mana.**

 _ **Dress of the Lily**_

 **Type: Anti-Unit (self)**

 **Range: N/A**

 **Maximum amount of targets: 1**

 **Rank: B - A**

 **The armored white dress akin to a lily owned by Natsumi, created through the soul merge. Contradictory to her sword, the dress is of pure white, highlighting her contradictory nature of existence. As a chakra construct, the armor can completely negate all jutsu's below B rank. As a mana construct however, the limitation is raised to A ranks. Equipping the armor can increase the user's endurance by up to a full rank's worth.**

 _ **Yoru**_ : _**Dreamless Utopia**_

 **Type: Barrier**

 **Range: N/A**

 **Maximum amount of targets: 1**

 **Rank: A++ - EX**

 **A scabbard that is the manifestation of Natsumi's desire for Utopia, having lost and suffered more in the first decade of her life than most beings do in their entire lifetimes, It is the crystallization of her desire to live on despite all odds being against her. The physical structure itself serves as a normal scabbard for Yami. As long as even portions of Natsumi's body remains along with her will to live and sufficient amount of Mana or Chakra, any and all injuries can be healed, granting her limited immortality on a slightly lower scale compared to fully fledged tailed beasts.**

 _ **Fukitsushirou/Hikari**_

 **Type: ?**

 **Range: ?**

 **Maximum amount of targets: Unknown**

 **Rank: B - EX**

 **A beautiful white and gold bow called Fukitsushirou, otherwise known as Hikari, possessed by Natsumi. It is the result of the initial soul merge between the beings Natsumi Uzumaki Namikaze and the Kyuubi, Kurama. The bow is the collective manifestation of Natsumi's will as a huntress and Tauropolos, having witnessed Atalanta drive an arrow into a divine beast. As a Chakra Construct, Natsumi can only use the bow to fire regularly. Despite this, a fully powered shot from Hikari can easily reach A rank levels of power. As a Mana Construct however, the bow can be manifested to its full potential, allowing access attacks that can be considered on the level of Noble Phantasms based off Tauropolos.**

 _ **Dress of the Huntress**_

 **Type: Anti-Unit (self)**

 **Range: N/A**

 **Maximum amount of targets: 1**

 **Rank: A**

 **A dress fit for hunting possessed by Natsumi, created through the soul-merge. It is primarily based of Atalanta's own dress due to the fact that it was what was on Natsumi's mind during the time of the Soul-merge. Equipping the dress increases presence concealment and agility by up to a full rank's worth.**

 **And yes, the wingdings actually say something, go search it up if you want for more context**


	10. 10 To Die Alone

She awoke with a groan as a terrible headache assaulted her.

"W-Where..." She muttered, trying to stand to no avail as she couldn't find strength to support herself at all.

 ** _"Kit, Kit, you there!?"_** She heard a familiar voice filled with concern shout within her mind, causing her to relax slightly. It had been a new experience to not be able to communicate with Kura, even if it was only for a moment, but the voice of her companion had managed to calm her down significantly.

 _"I'm fine... I think."_ She said mentally as she tried to get up again, this time only succeeding to get on her own to knees. At the very least she was no longer hugging the earth. Looking around as her vision returned, she could see that she was still in the same clearing she had performed the Chakra separation at, meaning that she was safe for the time being.

All of a sudden, the memories of the moments before she had passed out returned to her. She remembered the abyss she saw, the strange unearthly voice that spoke and the feeling of emptiness she felt afterwards. She was about to speak about it until Kura interrupted.

 ** _"Strange... I sense no Chakra coming from our body- what's this, Mana!?"_** Kura exclaimed, clearly surprised by whatever she had found.

 _"What's wrong?"_ Natsumi asked, concerned as to what the problem was. It was uncommon for the former tailed beast to be so riled up, and the only ever times she would ever act as such was when it either concerned Natsumi's wellbeing or when it was something she couldn't understand himself.

 ** _"I only sense Mana coming from our body, did anything happen when you disappeared there?"_** She asked curiously, causing her to relax. The soft tone told Natsumi that the issue was not a dangerous one like she had first suspected.

 _"Well, I kind of remember this abyss... Then this weird voice saying something, my ears hurt just by listening to it."_ She complained, bringing a hand up to rub her ears as she was reminded of the distorted sound again.

 ** _"...I see... we'll deal with that later, for now we'll deal with the fact that you are basically a foreign entity that possesses absolutely no chakra. We don't know how Mana works, but from what I can tell it's still pretty similar to chakra. Your body motor controls seem to be all over the place, but recovering, give it a few minutes."_** Kura explained before going dormant again, leaving Natsumi to herself.

It was a strange feeling, not being able to sense chakra within herself as it was something she could do ever since she was born. It was certainly a feeling that nothing could have prepared you for. Everything around her just seemed to be... clearer. Her body felt lighter whilst her senses were sharper, all in all the change was not one she could classify as bad.

She could finally move about on her knees after a minute, and only after another five did all her senses finally return to normal. She tried to stand up by gripping the grass on the ground for support, but to her surprise she had pulled out all the grass roots along with a substantial amount of earth with it.

Though she had augmented strength that could be considered beyond normal human capabilities even without chakra, this was something else, as she wasn't even actively using any strength, perhaps her physical traits were enhanced?

A few theories entered her head, the most likely being that Mana was simply a more sturdy and durable energy source.

As she tried to stand, she saw her sword imbedded in the ground in front of her. She reached out, and as she touched it, an explosive blast of air assaulted the area, causing the surrounding ground to crack slightly.

Natsumi's eyes widened as she found the source of the destruction to be her sword. As she gripped it in both hands, she could feel power literally oozing from it. Even stranger was that it felt like it was a part of her. Over the years, she had treated her bow and sword as tools, but now it genuinely felt like it was an extension of her body, a limb even.

Since the sword was a part of her soul, information on the current capabilities of the sword invaded her mind. As she registered all the information, she could feel a grin making its way onto her face, excited to test some of its new abilities later.

 ** _(Yami...)_** She heard something say. Panicking, she looked around to see who had managed to penetrate her seals, but she found no one.

 ** _(Down... Here...Name...Yami)_** She heard it say again. Looking down, her eyes widened as she realised that the sound was coming from the sword itself.

"You... can talk?" She asked skeptically, though all she received was a slight vibration on the handle of the sword.

"So... your name is **[Yami],** Is that right? Going to take a while to get used to'ttebayo..." She murmured as the newly renamed sword vibrated in approval.

She dismissed the sword and brought out her bow, and unsurprisingly the same thing as **[Yami]** occurred. A blast of air knocked everything away as it materialized. Though not many people would notice, she could clearly tell that the bow was slightly larger than before. Unsurprisingly, the bow had called itself **[Hikari]** , simple yet fitting, though it would take a while for her to get used to calling them as such instead of their old names.

It was only after dismissing the bow that she noticed the lack of weight on her head. Her hair was always kept at a fixed length just at her waist, with any attempts to cut it being rendered useless as it would automatically grow back to its old length

As she materialized [ **Yami]** and looked through the reflection however, she couldn't see the waist length hair that she had gotten rather bored of over the years. In its place however, was a ponytail that only reached the bottom of her neck held by a black ribbon. Her green fringes remained, but what stood out was the small strand of golden hair that poked out like an antenna. **(think saber lily hairstyle)**

She blinked for a moment, not registering the change before reaching up and poking the strand of hair slightly. As if in a daze, she repeatedly poked at it as if expecting a reaction.

 ** _"...I can see the satisfaction, but is that really the best use of our time?"_** Kura interrupted, though she sounded as if she found her behavior amusing.

Breaking out of her momentary trance, her cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment before she shook her head to clear herself of her thoughts.

 _"So any idea how this happened?"_ She asked.

 ** _"I'd guess it would be whatever turned you into this... uhhh... Mana Construct, happened before during soul-merge, probably something of the sort happened, I wouldn't know"_** Kura groaned, clearly unhappy to admit that there was something she couldn't explain.

Natsumi sighed , _"Stop sulking, the world's a big place you know?"_ She said, but all she got was an indignant huff.

Ignoring Kura, she decided to head back towards Tazuna's house seeing that it had been a few hours since she had left them. She tried to leap forward slightly to gather some momentum to get up onto the trees, but to her surprise she literally went flying straight out of the forest instead, to the point where she had to skid herself to a stop before she collided with something.

Surprised at her own speed, she took a moment to collect herself as she adjusted it to something she was comfortable with before leaping off again, this time with much more control. As she moved, she lowered her restraint little by little to allow her body to get used to her new physical capabilities.

She was moving at full speed after only a few minutes, a grin plastered on face as she felt the wind rushing past her, the excitement of the hunt that she was ever so used to. Though she didn't notice herself, she began to reinforce her body to its limits with her newfound Mana to take things even further. Sparks of blue flashed around her feet as she put her left foot forward.

An explosive force shook the trees in the area as she broke the sound barrier, an incredibly loud bang accompanying it. A flash of emerald, gold and black zoomed right past the forest, too fast for animals in the woods to even react. She ignored the trees in her way, smashing right through them as she focused purely on maintaining the momentum, the excitement she was feeling, the wind. Normally she would not have done something so risky, as no matter how sturdy her chakra construct body was, she doubted she could have survived hitting a solid object at such a high speed. Yet despite this, she could feel it within herself, she could feel that her new body could handle the strain.

"Haha!" She cried joyfully. Never had she moved at such speeds before, let alone breaking the sound barrier. She didn't want to stop, she just wanted to keep going, but unfortunately she found herself nearing Tazuna's house rather quickly.

Finally noticing that she could accidently endanger someone if she arrived at such speeds, she cancelled the reinforcements that she had accidently cast, slightly surprised at how natural it felt to manipulate Mana. Pouting slightly as she slowed down and came to a stop outside the house, she stretched her arms slightly before making her way inside.

 ** _"You know, that was probably the most satisfying thing to date."_** Kura commented, seemingly very satisfied with her former stunt.

 _"I'd have to agree to that"_ Natsumi added, still grinning and looking forward to being able to do what she just did again sometime soon.

"I'm back!" She called as she entered the door. She could hear shouts from behind the house belonging to Menma and Kushina, most likely from training. Mito was in the corner of the room reading her book like always whilst Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to be resting.

Her sister looked up for a moment, eyebrows raised as she took in her new look.

"Hair... looks good..." She whispered, barely audible to even with her superhuman senses.

"Thanks!" She replied with a wink, causing Mito's eyes to widen for a moment, clearly surprised that she managed to pick up on her words.

Natsumi sighed. Too much had happened in a single day and she needed some rest. Bidding her sister fairwell, she exited through the back entrance of the house. She could see her brother and mother practicing their taijutsu, something she was utterly hopeless at herself. Seeing as the two were quite into their bout, she decided not to disturb them, instead leaping onto the largest branch of the sole tree that decorated the yard. She dismissed her hunting dress and equipped her **[Dress of the Lily]** ¸Though unlike before when she was fighting Zabuza, the armoured pieces were missing, leaving only a comfortable white casual dress in its place.

As she laid down with her back against the tree, she could feel her consciousness fleeting. Though she did not require sleep, continuously exhausting herself of Chakra was not good for her consciousness, and the best way to refresh herself was to sleep.

She closed her eyes, and escaped into the world of her dream.

A dream of Knights, Fire and Deaths.

* * *

Zabuza woke with a gasp as he clutched his side in pain.

 _'What ha- oh right...'_ He thought as he remembered the events from earlier. As much as he wanted to call out on the girl for cheating, she was right. She had never specified the terms and rules, and it was his fault for being tricked into it.

By a little girl no less!

It was clear to him that the girl was different. He had once been exposed to the Sanbi's chakra before, and he distinctly remembered the type of signature a tailed beast emitted. The girl's was almost exactly the same as the one he remembered all those years ago.

Yet he also knew that it was impossible for the girl to be a jinchuuriki, every single of them were currently accounted for, meaning that this was something different.

His theory had been confirmed when she had released the henge that had even fooled him. He could not forget those nine swishing tails distinct of the Kyuubi. The girl hadn't denied it when he had called her the Kyuubi, it was almost like she had resigned in acceptance instead.

But how? He wouldn't know. The girl was a complete mystery that he hadn't accounted for.

Her skills with the blade was something else as well. She clearly knew her own abilities well, not overconfident like many, and still managed to hold her own against him even under pressure. The sword itself was of strange origins. As a former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, he was confident in his ability to identify almost any blade, but that sword was something else entirely, as if its origins were alien by nature. He couldn't even tell what type of metal was used, was it even metal?

That's not mentioning the girl's strength.

The shot from the bow was something else entirely. The arrow was far too fast for comfort, and the destruction was far too much for a genin. The loss of his arm was of little concern, he could make a temporary one for the next month's work and work on a permanent solution later. What was disturbing however was the strength of the one blow he had allowed her to make.

No one he knew could possibly cause such destruction from just one swing, not mentioning that he didn't detect much chakra from the attack at all. The only explanation was either the child really was the Kyuubi in human form or it was a strange gimmick the sword possessed, though he was leaning towards the latter due to the fact that she didn't parry or block his blows with that strength.

"You're awake?" He heard a voice say next to his bed. Turning around, he could see Haku in all his trap glory. Zabuza didn't know how he qualified as a male, but to anyone he would have been as a female at first glance.

"How's my arm?" He asked, skipping the pleasantries. They were in a professional line of work, and as long as the contract wasn't fulfilled, it would stay that way.

"Gone." Haku replied jokingly, earning a glare from Zabuza. "Alright, I can create a temporary arm of ice that'll last for a week, you'll need something more permanent afterwards though." She sighed.

"As expected then..."

He had a feeling that he would fight the girl again, and this time he wouldn't fall for such petty tricks.

He wouldn't give up, for he never failed a contract after all, no matter how much he despised it. This was just another mission to complete. He was swordsman and a shinobi, no one would weep his death, some would even celebrate.

To walk this path was to be alone. He would fight alone, and he would die alone.

Though sometimes he wondered, was there someone who would mourn his death? Was there someone who he could die alongside in peace when the time came? For years he had such thoughts and searched, but steadily lost hope.

Yet he would keep fighting, for the least he could do was to not be forgotten by the passage of time.

 **And another chapter. Next chapter will be a small timeskip and straight to the bridge fight. Though I'd end it here instead of continuing to the fight since it wouldn't fit too well. A bit short. but hopefully the next one will be nice and long.**


	11. 11 To Die with a Smile

_1 week later_

The flash of black sped through the forest, blowing everything away in its sight. It was moving at such a high speed that any and everything that it came into contact with was blown apart on contact. The figure showed no signs of slowing down as it continued to move, leaping from branch to branch with elegance.

The figure was none other than Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze.

Though she would usually be shouting from joy from the speed she was moving at, the young huntress was currently in deep thought due to the discoveries she had made over the past week.

The first thing she had tested after becoming a Mana Construct was the similarity in the uses compared to Chakra, and to her surprise the methods of control was almost the same, except that hand seals weren't necessary, something she was quite happy about as it was a needless hindrance during combat.

However, she had found an annoying setback along the way.

* * *

 _Four days ago_

 _ **"Perhaps you should try reinforcing something else, say your sword for example"**_ _Kura suggested as she watched Natsumi testing her strength against the poor trees in the area. Needless to say, she had almost cleared an entire section of the forest, leaving uprooted trees with fist marks in her wake._

 _Natsumi's fox ears perked up as she heard the suggestion. Nodding slightly, she brought out_ _ **[Yami]**_ _and attempted to reinforce it like she usually would with Chakra. Unsurprisingly, the reinforcement went through without a hitch, but something felt odd about the sword afterwards. It was almost as if the reinforcement was disappearing faster than usual._

 _It was common knowledge that strengthening things outside the human body could not be permanent, as any reinforcements done to objects would fade after a few days. No one had a concrete idea as to why, but most simply called it a law of nature, most likely due to their own laziness._

 _The reinforcement she had just cast however was disappearing far too rapidly, to the point where it would most likely completely disappear by the end of the hour._

" _What the..." She muttered in shock as she felt the mana within_ _ **[Yami]**_ _fade away._

 _ **"This feeling... It's almost like something is rejecting your reinforcement..."**_ _Kura commented, equally interested in what was occurring._

 _"Something is interfering with it?" She asked, hoping for an answer._

 _ **"Yes... something like that, though it doesn't seem like someone else trying to sabotage you. It feels more as if... the world itself is rejecting your reinforcement."**_ _Kura replied, though her tone suggested that not even she really knew what was happening._

 _"I see..."_

* * *

After another few days of testing, she finally concluded that any external use of Mana deteriorated rapidly, almost as if the act was being rejected by the world itself. It was quite an annoying drawback, but not something she couldn't handle as fortunately her style of fighting didn't require many external uses of Chakra if any at all unlike many of those who relied on puppetry.

 _'Alright, let's get the next test going...'_ She thought as she held Yami in her hands, though to an observer it would appear as if she was holding nothing. Though one could clearly tell that she was gripping something, empty space took the place of the black and red sword she usually wielded.

It was the effect of the first limiter which she discovered during the past week. **[Yami]** held a total of four limiters, the second and third being extremely destructive in nature if used to their fullest potential whilst the fourth, according to Kura, had the potential to be the most deadly attack currently in the Elemental Nations, including everything the tailed beast had seen in her life, Sage of Six Paths included.

Though she was proud of the fact that she possessed such an attack, it was a problem that there was currently no possible way for her to unleash it.

She had made leaps and bounds in the Sage Arts since becoming a Mana Construct. Though she initially believed that the path was locked to her forever due to no longer possessing chakra, she found that interacting with mana in the air was far simpler than chakra, meaning that techniques commonly used in Sage Arts could be converted into a useable form with Mana.

Only since the morning did she finally manage succeed in a method to use the mana in the air to power her attacks.

Her more destructive attacks such as Phoebus Catastrophe (which to her delight, she found could finally pull off) required extremely high amounts of mana to actually pull off, and the amount within her body whilst enough, would lead her completely exhausted. Thanks to Kura's help she had found a method within her vast pool of knowledge to use the chakra in the air to power jutsus instead of the chakra within the body.

The technique was not an easy one, and only useable by those extremely knowledgeable about the uses of chakra and were familiar with their own chakra networks. Since her entire body used to be made of chakra, she was more than qualified in terms of knowledge.

The process, whilst difficult due to her utilizing mana instead of chakra, allowed her to convert chakra in her vicinity to mana (a process she had mastered over the past week by familiarising herself with it) and using that mana to directly power her large scale attacks instead of using the mana within her own body.

The experiment had proven to be a success, and whilst it took her a few seconds more to prepare and cast, almost completely subverted the mana costs.

The problem with **[Yami]** 's fourth limiter, was that the activation cost was higher than that of the concentration of chakra that existed in the air, meaning that even with her almost cheat-like technique, there was no possible way to use it unless she found a way to create mana or chakra.

The first limiter had the effect of completely concealing **[Yami]**. Length, width, size, form and even the pressure it exhibited was concealed. She had tried to bring her hands close to the blade, but surprisingly she couldn't touch the blade itself, almost as if being stopped by a wall of air.

Kura, who was far more educated in the sciences of the world, hypothesized through observation that the phenomenon was made possible through compressed air, though even the tailed beast couldn't further as she had never really paid attention to the wonders of the world as some curious humans had.

Used normally, it proved to be extremely effective as the compressed air surrounding the blade made for sharper cuts whilst the magical energy that was also constantly present increased its overall damage output.

What she wasn't prepared for however, was what would happen if she released it. The first time she had done so without preparing herself, she was sent propelling backwards at almost the speed of sound, knocking her out for a minute or two.

As the magical energy and air around the sword was released, it was also accompanied by an extremely powerful gale which blew any and everything away, though unfortunately it was a one-use attack possible only whilst releasing what she now liked to call **[Invisible Air]**.

Now back to the present, she had been attempting to use the magical burst accompanied by the releasing of **[Invisible Air]** in different fashions.

Whilst moving at a speed beyond that of sound, she held **[Yami]** at her waist and pointed behind her as she steadied herself. The releasing of **[Invisible Air]** did not require any verbal incantations nor cast time, meaning that it could also be used to catch an enemy off-guard.

 _'...KAI!'_ She shouted within her mind to pull the mental trigger, and at the same time her figure which could still be tracked by mid to high level jonins completely disappeared, or at least seemed to. If one were to look carefully around a second later, they would see her skidding along the forest floor almost a kilometer away.

' _WHAAT THHHHHEEEE FUUUUU-'_ She was cut off from her thoughts as she crashed straight into the side of a fairly large hill at a speed three times that of the speed of sound. A loud explosion echoed as a cloud of dust covered the area. As it cleared, one could see a man sized hole running deep into the rocky side of the hill. Natsumi swiftly emerged from hole whilst coughing since there was a chance that the little cave she had accidently dug for herself could collapse in on itself.

 _ **"That... was SPEED!"**_ Kura said accompanied by a joyful cheer not long afterwards. It seemed that the tailed beast had enjoyed the experience quite a lot.

 _'riiiiiight...'_ Natsumi sweatdropped whilst dusting off her dress after one final cough. After realising that the releasing of **[Invisible Air]** created a powerful gale that could be used as an attack, she theorized that it could also technically be used as a tool for a short burst of speed, inspired by the first accident she had with the ability.

She had NOT expected to go three times faster in an instant, even though it was only for a moment. It was clear to her that she was not ready to control the burst of speed whilst moving, meaning she could only use it whilst stationary for now. Leaving the thoughts for now, she began to walk slowly towards the direction of Tazuna's house.

 _ **"Do it again!"**_ Kura demanded.

 _"SHUT IT, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT HURT!"_ She shouted back mentally.

 _ **"Boo~ little missy can't handle a litt-"**_ The tailed beast began before being interrupted by an ominous presence.

The temperature dropped by a few degrees as Natsumi's forced smile seemed to twitch.

 _" . .Call. .Missy...?"_ she stammered, temperature dropping as she echoed each and every word.

 _ **"Ahahaha... yeah I have something to do, bye bye!"**_ Kura cut off the connection in a hurry to save himself before Natsumi could get a hold on her, causing the girl to sigh in frustration as the presence from earlier disappeared.

It seemed that she was quite close to her destination from the beginning, and to her surprise she could already see Tazuna's house from where she was, though something seemed off. It felt a little too... rowdy.

As she got close however, she could smell a few entities that most certainly weren't her family's. She immediately got up onto a tree for a better view, and her eyes narrowed as she saw what seemed to be a dozen thugs or so attempting to get past Mito's protective seals, though Natsumi knew that they would not be successful as her sister's seals were on the level of masters by now.

Looking closer, she could see Tazuna and Tsunami along with her son Inari through the window at the front, looking at the thugs with worry.

 _'So it's started...'_ she thought. Through deduction, she could conclude that her siblings and Kushina were fighting at the bridge if thugs were sent to Tazuna's house. She would need to get there fast.

Without wasting a moment, she began a swift run up. Though she couldn't move at full speed during a duel do to the disorientation it would cause without absolute perfect control, she could still utilize her extremely high mobility to engage for a swift kill.

If the enemy had no honour, then she would show none to them.

She began to accelerate as she took step after step after equipping her **[Dress of the Lily]** , transforming into a blur after leaping forward on the first step. The thugs didn't even know what hit them even after their heads separated from their bodies, each and every one of them lifelessly dropping in an instant.

Common thugs usually grew up in civilian areas with little to know knowledge of chakra and its uses. There were a rare few who managed to learn how to control basic amounts through sheer luck, but most were simple brutes who had less combat potential than graduate genins.

Though it was a fact that they were still living creatures. She might not be a human anymore, but she was a huntress and a swordswoman with honor at heart, and she gave anything and anyone, regardless of who or what they were, swift and painless deaths.

Flicking her blade to the side, blood splattered on the grass as she looked back towards the window, where Tazuna was watching. Tsunami and Inari were nowhere to be seen, understandable as they most likely had never seen such a brutal act before.

Giving the seals a check, she gave Tazuna one last nod before leaping towards the direction of the bridge with a burst of speed.

* * *

Zabuza was not very pleased.

He had been expecting the girl to show up when he revealed himself on the bridge, but instead found that she just happened to be separated from the rest of her team for the moment, and instead he was to deal with the wife of the current Hokage.

Not to be disrespectful, but the matchup was heavily in his favour simply due to the fact that he was a kenjutsu user who possessed one of the greatest swords on the elemental nations whilst she was a taijutsu specialist. Whilst chakra could allow a taijutsu specialist to fight with a kenjutsu user, he still had far more range and versatility, along with the fact that his sword was far more potent than the mundane blades used by most, forcing the red-headed Uzumaki to invest more chakra into making sure she wasn't amputated by his strikes.

She was certainly a strong fighter, but this was a won match for him in the long run, even now the woman in front of him seemed to be tired from chakra use, even though it wasn't shown on her face. Due to his years spent mastering the arts of silent assassination, he was one of few who could understand their opponents simply by observing very simple things such as muscle movement, twitching, posture and even breathing patterns.

The problem however, was Haku's side. The two genins proved themselves to be extremely capable, one being a borderline Seal-master, whilst the other seemed to have the brute strength of a Bijuu. The two were actively using their tailed beast chakra and were pressuring Haku hard, he needed to end it fast.

But before he could do anything however, a flash of white struck the middle of the bridge, surprising all the fighters. As the dust cleared, the girl he had been waiting for was standing in the middle of a small crater.

 _'great...'_ he thought with annoyance. They were already troublesome with only three people, but now with the addition of the wildcard, chances for victory without sacrifices was low, VERY low.

Their eyes met, but he could feel fire in them this time, something he couldn't feel before. Last time, she was simply a girl with a sword, but now it felt like he was in front of a warrior. Something felt off as well about the signature he was getting. It felt like chakra but... it was different.

He shook his get to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts. Over thinking things before a fight was a formula for demise.

The girl looked over to the Hokage's wife, Kushina, if he recalled correctly. The older woman looked conflicted for a moment, but let out a resigned sigh after seeing the determined look on the girl's face. She retreated back to the end of the bridge to observe, whilst the girl took her place, eyes still locked onto him.

A moment of silence passed between the two, until she opened her mouth. "Shall we continue this?" She asked, a smirk present on her face.

"Before we begin, what changed? You seem to have... changed." He asked back. It was a simple probe for information that most wouldn't answer, but the two were no longer fighting as shinobi, but as wielders of the sword.

"The most I can tell you is a breakthrough, though you can find out about the rest yourself." She replied, bringing her hand up next to her as if she was holding a sword in the empty hands of hers.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, "And where did your sword go?"

"Right in these hands."

He stared at the empty space being held by the girl, and as he concentrated he could smell a small, but noticeable trace of blood in what seemed to be the air she was holding.

 _'The sword is invisible now... I see.'_ He concluded as he got into a stance of his own.

"Zabuza Momochi, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." He declared with confidence

"Natsumi, just Natsumi. Swordsman, huntress, and what you would know as the Kyuubi." She declared with no hint of fear, her glowing eyes sharpening even further.

He didn't flinch nor show any reaction to the last title. It did not matter who he opponent was, even if it was a god. As long as it wielded a sword and had honor, it was no more than his equal on the stage of the duel.

Without another word, the two moved.

* * *

Natsumi used her reinforced speed to take Zabuza by surprise, as he was most likely still used to her old level of speed, and it worked splendidly. He barely had time to block as she sent a slash at his chest, sparks flying as her blade clashed with the monstrous blade he wielded. The exchange lasted for a moment before her opponent directed **[Yami]** away from himself and attempted to get on the offensive himself, though she wouldn't fall for the same trap twice.

Twisting herself on her heels, she narrowly avoided the strike meant to decapitate her and smashed the pommel of her sword against his arm, causing him to wince slightly, though not much as he had reinforced his defenses his chakra beforehand.

He sent a kick at her chest as she brought her sword down to block, though the force still sent her flying into the air even though she sustained no damage. Using the small time window as an opportunity, she swiftly summoned her bow and aimed it towards Zabuza whilst she was still descending upside down. Even under such firing conditions, Kura corrected any errors she had in her aim, allowing her to accurately target her opponent's heart at an impossible angle.

A normal person would have scoffed at her actions and charged her, but Zabuza was no such man. He was a trained nin who was one of the best swordsman in the elemental nations, the amount of battles he had lived through ensured that his instincts were far sharper than most. He dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding her arrows before dashing towards her landing area.

Re-summoning **[Yami]** , She barely blocked Zabuza in time as he used her lack of footing to his advantage. With a small shout, she pushed Zabuza away and landed a fair distance away, resetting the fight completely.

Through the short exchange, a few things were clear. The first was that she was definitely faster and stronger in her current state, but Zabuza had the advantage of experience, skill and sharper instincts. Even though her first strike should have been too fast for a human to react to, the man had raised his monstrous sword to block without even knowing that she was attacking. He must have been in countless battles to death to possess such strong survival instincts and intuition.

 _"It's basically a cheat dattebayo!"_ She internally shouted in frustration.

 _ **"Yes... the person with the completely overpowered gear along with the strength and speed beyond that of humans along with a never before seen energy source is calling someone else a cheat..."**_ Kura deadpanned whilst working on deciphering Zabuza's attack pattern.

 _"..."_ She remained silent, too prideful to admit that the tailed beast was correct. Kura chuckled in victory as she saw Natsumi pout slightly.

Though there was something that Zabuza could not beat her at no matter what he did, and that was stamina. Even though he was a shinobi, one of the top tier ones at that, he could still get tired if he used too much chakra, and currently she was forcing him to use far more than he normally used just so he could keep up with her enhanced strength and speed. If this were to go on for much longer, he wouldn't last.

She tightly grasped **[Yami]** before leaping off towards Zabuza again, ground under her buckling under each step. She increased the weight of **[Yami]** by 60x, a weight that she could handle with her body as a Mana Construct. Each attack of hers increasing in intensity as Zabuza miraculously countered. As the exchanges continued, Zabuza switched from parrying to simply redirecting her strikes, switching their roles completely from the last time they had fought.

At the same time, a genuine smile found itself on Natsumi's face. It was perhaps the first ever fight she had to last so long, against such a skilled opponent too. All her sparring matches with Itachi and Sasuke ended too fast either because her opponent was too strong or too inexperienced, and it had dulled the excitement she first felt when wielding a sword.

Her first fight with Zabuza was more not one she could take any luxury in, as she was rather weak compared to her current self and her family's lives were at stake.

Now, however, she was far stronger than before and her family was not in any immediate danger as far as she could tell. For the first time in several years, she finally felt the thrill of the battle as a disturbing laugh escaped her lips as she and her opponent darted past each other, blades colliding.

 _ **"Oh dear..."**_ Kura sweat dropped, afraid at the prospects of Natsumi becoming a battle junky.

Focused on his sword entirely, Natsumi let her eyes wander from Zabuza's feet. Seeing the opportunity, he lifted it slightly to trip her.

 _ **"Under you!"**_ Kura called, but it was just a little too late. She attempted to jump over his foot, but the pointed end of her solleret got caught, causing her to fall forwards. Zabuza didn't waste a moment as he raised his sword, intending to end the match. It was a very common tactic, but to find such a small opening on her end and utilizing it to his advantage in the small time frame he had was an ability that deserved respect.

Time seemed to slow down for her as her thought processes sped up, assessing the situation and finding the best method to escape her predicament. A fraction of a second passed, but to her it seemed more like a minute. Time sped up again, as she watched the butcher knife come down, aiming to decapitate her.

"HA!" With a shout, she spun a full 180 degree mid air, a feat that defied all logic. With her right hand, she grasped the sharp end of Zabuza's sword before it could separate her head, and used it to launch herself into the air, dragging Zabuza to the floor at the same time. She landed on the construction crane as she looked down at Zabuza, who performed a role before getting back onto his feet.

Seeing the blood on the end of his sword, she looked down at her own right hand, the one she had used to block the attack. Even though the gauntlet was of highest quality and could protect her even from A-rank jutsu's, Zabuza's swing was meant to end the duel, and therefore contained much power. She could see that his sword had managed to cut through her gauntlet, almost completely severing hand through the palm. In fact, half of her hand was simply dangling from the cut, just barely attached to her body through a small amount of skin.

However, the pain she felt was minimal, it was numb than painful to be honest. Her sense of pain had dulled severely after becoming a Chakra Construct, something that was even further enhanced after becoming a Mana Construct. Currently, she would most likely only feel what could be described as pain if her body was grinded to pieces.

"Natsumi!" She heard Kushina shout with worry, with a trace of confusion as to why she didn't look so worried. It was revealed a moment later however as her injury was ingulfed in a what seemed to be red and dark light. The air in the area dispersed as her hand began to stitch itself together, causing Zabuza and Kushina to gape in astonishment, though Menma and Mito were too focused on their fight to notice what was happening.

 **[Yoru: Dreamless Utopia]** was a manifestation of her will to live and the tailed beast's immortality, it was the key to her bijuu-like regeneration, which could heal even fatal wounds (though she wasn't very eager to test its full capabilities. Despite the fact that she felt little to no pain, injuring and mangling herself was not a pleasant experience).

As the light faded, her deformed hand that had almost been cut in two was as good as new, even the cut on her gauntlet seemed to have vanished.

She stared down at Zabuza, whose expression seemed to be a mix between irritation and annoyance (both pretty much the same thing anyways). She certainly could relate, if she had managed to get in a such a blow only to have it heal effortlessly, she too would most likely have been pissed off.

The two were cut from their little staring contest however, as the sound of a body hitting the floor registered. The two looked to the side, where her siblings were standing next to a girlish boy - something she most likely would have mistaken if not for her sense of smell. The boy had a hole where his heart was, and looking closely he could see Menma shaking slightly with his left hand drenched in blood, possibly frozen in shock from the act of killing someone directly for the first time.

The light in the boy's eyes dulled as she stared up at Zabuza, who's eyes were widened from shock, from the ground. "Zabuza...sama..." He said as she tried to raise a hand towards the swordsman, "Was I... useful... in the end...?" He asked softly with a smile on his face, before his raised arm dropped lifelessly.

Silence ensued as Zabuza stared at the boy's body, a myriad of emotions flashing across his face, most prominent being disappointment and sadness, but under that was an emotion that he was attempting to hide desperately, something possibly only she picked up.

Pain.

"It's over Zabuza." She said confidently, using his disorientation to her advantage. Whilst it may been seen by some as disrespect for the dead, they entered the fight knowing that there was a high chance this was how it would turn out, yet the two missing nin did not turn around. They came prepared to die, and she would not disrespect their spirits.

"You underestimate my power." He replied immediately before leaping towards her, most likely affected by the death of his accomplice. For a regular person, such an act would have counted as insane, but a shinobi could leap hundreds of meters into the air if they put their all into it.

That however, was Zabuza's one and final mistake.

Since Zabuza could no longer dodge in the state he was in, she positioned **[Yami]** behind her, facing the opposite direction of Zabuza. Though she couldn't handle the burst of speed whilst moving at full speeds, it was a different story if she was stationary.

As **[Invisible Air]** was released, a violent gale assaulted the area as Natsumi's shot forward like a comet. Zabuza's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, but it was already too late. In not even a fraction of a second, Natsumi was already in front of him, **[Yami]** shining in all its glory and no longer hidden.

"Its... OVER!" She yelled as their blades met mid air. The momentum from her attack immediately overpowered Zabuza's sword, cutting right through it. The sword continued on its path, cutting right across Zabuza's chest as her momentum forced her to continue towards the ground, shaking the very foundations of the bridge as she landed.

* * *

He had lost...

Yes. He, Zabuza Momochi, had lost.

It was a strange feeling ,something he hadn't experienced for a very, very long time. In a line of work where losing meant death, he couldn't afford to lose.

Yet he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him, and he had lost in the end.

He stood at the center of the bridge, blood pouring from the slash wound that went from his shoulder all the way to his waist. He coughed out blood as his beloved sword dropped to the ground with a clang.

As a child he had been searching for someone who he could die in the arms of, but it seemed that his wish would not be granted. He would die alone, forgotten, like all his predecessors.

His thoughts were interrupted as slow clapping came from across the bridge. Figures emerged from the mist one by one, dozens of not hundreds of them, yet he couldn't even detect a genin's worth of chakra from the crowd.

"To think the famed silent killer would not even be able to handle a brat, perhaps your fame was misplaced, Zabuza." The leader of the crowd said with an irritatingly arrogant smirk. He was an old man in a black suit, glasses covering his eyes with wild hair. His stature was not that of a fighter, and wrinkled skin showed that he most likely could not even hold himself against a child. An army of thugs was behind him, all holding makeshifts weapons of different kinds including clubs, hammers and some even swords, though not ones of high quality.

The hokage's wife and his children stood between Natsumi and the Gatou's gang. Zabuza knew that even one of them was enough to mop it up, and thus didn't take action himself.

He ignored them, and instead looked towards the girl he had lost to. Yes, she was strong, too strong for a genin, yet he knew that she was just a young girl. No matter how confident, no matter how strong and no matter how inhumane she seemed to be, she was still just a little girl, and he had lost to her.

He sighed as he walked over to Haku, staring at his partner's lifeless eyes as he picked his feminine body up from the ground. He could feel the gaze of the girl, Natsumi, she called herself, analyzing him as he walked over towards the side of the bridge, blood still pouring out of his wound.

As he arrived, he slowly sat down, supporting himself against the rail ran along the sides of the bridge. This was where he would die in the end, his dream unfulfilled whilst knowing he had lost to a child.

"Are you really satisfied?" He heard Natsumi ask. He glanced over, life slowly leaving his eyes as he began to succumb to his wound.

He scoffed, "No, but that wouldn't change anything, now would it? My only wish was to die in the arms of a loved one, yet even that seems impossible..." He replied, his last few words being barely more than a whisper, though the girl seemed to have picked it up regardless.

His eyebrows rose slightly in surprise as he heard the girl chuckle.

"Is my wish so funny to you?" He asked with a hint of anger in his voice. Who was she to question what he wanted?

The girl shook her head, "No, not at all... You're really dense, aren't you?"

"What do yo-" He began before he was cut off as the glowing sword in the girl's hands vanished as a white bow took its place, the one she had used to take one of his arms.

"Kura often says I'm the dense one, but it seems that you're even more stupid than me dattebayo..." She continued as an arrow materialised in her hand.

Gatou seemed to have noticed too, "What are you all doing, GET HER!" The man yelled as the hundreds of men behind him started to move.

Natsumi didn't seem to be affected though, as she continued to nock the arrow. Zabuza gasped in surprise as he literally felt the chakra in the air disappearing- no, it didn't disappear, the chakra in the air was being converted into something else? He was never one for academics, and all his knowledge on Chakra was earned through experience, so he could only comprehend what was happening through what he knew.

The energy in the air was then absorbed into the bow, the gold markings on it beginning to glow as a result. sparks crackled from the arrow as the projectile was enveloped in a white light. The small sparks of electricity gradually turned into lightning that randomly struck the nearby area, though all of them missed him and the girl's team. Her nine tails behind her stiffened as if an electric shock ran through them as the ominous glow in her eyes brightened.

The girl aimed the bow upwards as she began to speak words that sent chills down his spine. Words filled with power, words that signaled victory.

 _ **"For I am Light bathed in Darkness..."**_

 **[PHOEBUS CATASTROPHE]**

The arrow which seemed more like a spear of light flew upwards at a speed surpassing anything he had ever seen. The force from the shot itself was enough to blow away all debris in her surroundings as the crater under her seemed to deepen, though just by a small amount. Gatou's men stopped dead in their tracks as even they, who barely knew anything about chakra, could feel the power that was washing over them. Unlike the usual sound produced by an arrow being shot, this arrow literally went off with a bang that could potentially leave people deaf if they were too close. The Hokage's wife and her children were still in their combat stances, but their eyes were glued to the arrow that was travelling at a speed even he was having trouble tracking. The surrounding clouds dispersed as the arrow pierced right through, disappearing into the sky.

A moment passed, and nothing happened. He could hear some of Gatou's men beginning to open their mouths in ridicule the girl, but Zabuza continued to watch with wide eyes as the lifeless sky lit up. The thugs, including Gatou covered their eyes as the light was too strong for them whilst others kept on watching, as if entranced.

 **"Is this the light you were searching for, Zabuza?"** A distorted voice asked. He snapped his neck to the source, but was surprised to see that it came from the girl, Natsumi. His mind wasn't in the right places due to the blood loss, but even he could tell that this was not a little girl talking anymore.

It was a tailed beast.

He didn't answer, but instead raised his head just in time to see a pillar of light descend from the skies on where Gatou and his men were standing. It let out a screeching sound that would most certainly have annoyed him if not for the fact that he was on death's door.

It was bright.

A little too bright, almost like an embrace.

Unconsciously, his left hand lifted itself from the ground and held itself out towards the pillar of light, like he was yearning for it.

It was a strange feeling, a feeling of familiarity and something he hadn't experienced in a very, very long time.

Love.

Not love in a romantic sense, but just very simple love that could have been between any two people. Between friends, between siblings, between father and son, mother and daughter.

But why was this light so relaxing? He had searched far and beyond in hopes to die one day in the arms of a loved one, yet found no answer, but in front of him was the very light that he was searching for!

 **"The light isn't what you're looking for, look further."** Natsumi said from besides him, and he listened.

He looked further, to find out why it felt so familiar. He who had never experienced love in any form, was familiar with it? Impossible!

Yet, as he searched, in a small corner of his mind, he found a memory.

It was buried deep in his consciousness, a memory that he wouldn't recall no matter how hard he tried, but it resonated within his mind.

* * *

 _Several years ago_

 _"Tou-san, what are we doing today?" Haku asked as he caught a fish with a spear of ice that he had created._

 _Zabuza, who was observing from behind, blinked in surprise._

 _"Tou-san?" He asked_

 _Haku, who had realised his mistake, swiftly covered his mouth, dropping his spear of ice in the process as the skewered fish was swept up by the stream._

 _"Zabuza-sama, I m-meant u-uh..." He stuttered, unable to formulate a response._

 _"Don't worry about it" Zabuza told him, causing the girlish boy to look up in surprise._

 _"I will allow it just this once." He added, a huge smile appearing on Haku's face as he did, eyes sparkling with light he had never seen in the boy._

* * *

Yes...

I see now...

The light in Haku's eyes, it was the same.

He chuckled as he looked down at Haku who had passed on, his body lying in his hands. Brushing his hair aside slightly, Zabuza saw a content smile on the dead boy's face. A similar smile made its way under the bandages that covered his mouth as he rested his chin on top of the boy's head.

"To think... my wish... was right in front of me... all this time..." He said as his vision blurred. Death was catching up with him fast, but he didn't care anymore. His wish had been fulfilled, and he could die the way he wanted.

"Hey, little girl..." He called weakly. Even under the screeching sound of the pillar of light, he knew that the girl could still hear him.

"Thank...You..."

And he died, in the hands of a loved one.

* * *

 _"Since when were you so good at reading people?"_ Natsumi asked, surprised that Kura could figure out Zabuza completely in the short time they had together.

 _ **"I'm thousands upon thousands of years old, I've seen all kinds of people, countless whom were like him."**_ The tailed beast replied without going into much detail.

 _"...Thank you for that."_

 _ **"It was the right thing to do... You taught me that."**_

Natsumi inwardly smiled, celebrating the fact that he managed to change Kura from a human-hating fox to one who could at least respect others.

Zabuza, despite being a swordsman and missing nin, was just a lost man without a purpose. Everyone deserved a satisfying end, no matter who they were, and Zabuza was just one such man. She was glad that she, or technically Kura, managed to atleast give him peace in death.

She was broke out of her thoughts however, as the pillar of light dissipated. Despite **[Phoebus Catastrophe]** 's main attack looking like a beam of light, it was in fact thousands, if not millions of needle thin projectiles that rained upon an area continuously.

When she had first tested it out, she found an aria was the best way of bringing out the full potential of her attacks, and with the help of Kura and countless hours of trial and error, she had finally settled upon the first line. At least she was satisfied with it in the end.

Looking forward, she wasn't surprised to find the section of the bridge missing, essentially splitting the entire structure in half. Gatou and his men had no chance, and were most certainly dead, though no one would ever find a trace of them.

Suddenly, she remembered an important part of the technique which she had completely forgotten about when she used **[Phoebus Catastrophe]**.

"Oh shit..." She cursed, surprising her team who still seemed to be in awe, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"Mito, Defense seal on 10m radius, quick!" She yelled, breaking her sister out of her stupor. Though the girl didn't seem to know what was happening, she followed the instructions nonetheless due to the tone of her voice.

A barrier engulfed the four of them as a projectile descended from the clouds. If one were to look carefully, they would see the original arrow that she fired to activate **[Phoebus Catastrophe]**.

Like a comet, it shot down in a line straight into the hole in the middle of the bridge before striking the water. A moment later, a loud explosion sounded under the bridge, shaking the structure itself as the waves in the sea fluctuated violently.

A minute passed before it all died down, finally allowing Mito to dispel the barrier that had kept them safe from the large waves created from the explosion.

Sweat dripped down her back as she felt three piercing gazes. Though she admitted that using **[Phoebus Catastrophe]** on a bridge under construction was not a sound idea, it was the only way she could convey her thoughts to Zabuza at the time.

Besides, it was Kura's idea anyway!

 _ **"HEY!"**_

"So will you be explaining just what in the HELL that was, or do we have to beat it out of you dattebane?" Kushina asked as she cracked her knuckles, an ominous aura escaping her that promised pain.

"You're... paying... for... repair..." Mito added, one hand pointing to the gap that now existed between the two sides of the bridge.

"WOW, you really are my nee-san after all, show me how you do that when we get ho-GAH!" He began before he was pinned to the floor by Kushina, who began to lecture him on issues of subtlety.

Natsumi sweat dropped.

 _"Uhh, weren't they going to interrogate me a second ago, and did they seriously just forget that we're in the middle of a bridge that might collapse soon if we don't do something?"_ she asked Kura, completely clueless as to what she should do in such a situation

 _ **"I swear, all Uzumaki's are strange in their own ways..."**_ Kura replied whilst reminiscing about his time in his former containers.

Natsumi sighed as she looked behind her towards where Zabuza was.

His eyes were closed as his chin rested on the girlish boy's head, arms to his side. She was surprised however, to see the boy's arms circled around Zabuza's limp body even in death. Looking carefully, she could see a smile on both Zabuza and the boy's faces, though Zabuza's was slightly harder to make out under the bandage. She smiled in satisfaction and she looked back at her mother and siblings, for she knew that the two would meet again, somewhere far away.

For death was simply the next great adventure, after all.

 _ **"Hey, you stole that one off from my memories"**_

 _"Shut it."_

* * *

 **AAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT another chapter**

 **Here's an updated status sheet below. Natsumi is not a servant, meaning that she can still improve her stats through control and training. She will gradually get stronger and stronger, but the reason there's a big leap her is because this is from when she just got her new power to when she managed to experiment with everything she had. It's similar to first time playing a game to having a week's worth of experience, you improve fast at the beginning.**

 **I won't be putting a stat sheet every chapter, just after ones where I believe its necessary possibly after a big timeskip or after she demonstrates a N.P level attack.**

 **By the way, if some of you were wondering, I'm currently trying to balance out power levels between Nasu and DxD verse. The thing is, we cannot rely on visual feats from animes, cause those are unreliable asf (look at FSN 2006 and UBW 2015), So I'm rereading all the LN's and things atm because the authors would know best. I'll also be altering some power levels to fit my fic a bit more.**

 **So if some of you think that Natsumi is becoming op, just ask yourself the question 'Are these stats going to be enough against entire pantheons, and gods like Surya, Ra, Lugh, Yahweh? Because these beings can pretty sure fk over top level servants, and they all exist in DxD verse casually even if the author doesn't really give them any screen time.**

 **So be warned, I'm not trying to wank to DxD or anything, I'm a big Fate fan, but I'm trying to realistically blend in the two universes here, give some support.**

 **Name: Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze**

 **Alignment: True Neutral**

 **Strength: D (C+) With Reinforcement**

 **Luck: E+**

 **Mana: A+**

 **Agility: C (B+) With Reinforcement**

 **Endurance: D+ (C) with Reinforcement**

 **N.P: B - EX**

* * *

 **Noble Phantasms (new ones as they are revealed)**

 _ **Phoebus Catastrophe: Hikari**_

 **Type: Anti-Unit /Anti-Army**

 **Range: 2-50**

 **Maximum Number of targets: 500**

 **Rank: A+**

 **Unlike the Phoebus Catastrophe Noble Phantasm used by Heroic Spirit Atalanta, this attack simply shares its name due to its similarity in nature and also due to it being based on what Natsumi witnessed during the soul-merge. A single arrow is charged to its maximum capacity and Nocked before being shot into the sky. The mana is then dispersed and redistributed. The larger the chosen range for the attack, the less powerful the attack will be on individual targets. Once redistributed, the condensed mana will act as a physical attack over an area, giving the illusion of a pillar of light descending from the heavens. The initial arrow itself containing leftover energy will follow, resulting in large scale destruction even if only a single target is chosen.**

* * *

 _ **Yami Limiter One: Invisible Air**_

 **Type: Anti-Unit**

 **Range: 1**

 **Maximum Number of Targets: 1**

 **Rank: C+**

 **An invisible sheathe that covers Yami, completely concealing its presence and length. It is made of multiple layers of wind compressed into super-high pressure air with massive amounts of magical energy, which distorts the refraction of light and renders what is inside completely invisible. Upon releasing [Invisible Air], the compressed wind surges around her chaotically, creating a vacuum as it diffuses into the air with enough force to knock normal people over and shake heavy, firm trees like a typhoon. It can be used as a one-off attack, creating a gale powerful enough to destroy buildings.**

 **It can also be used as a utility for acceleration. If used whilst stationary, it has enough power to instantly boost her to the speed of sound, though only for a moment, whilst if used whilst moving has the potential to boost her speed by up to three times for a short moment.**

 **Compared to King Arthur's [Invisible Air], Yami's has slightly more overall power, making it harder to control at the same time. If the user cannot handle the strain from the sudden acceleration, it can lead to the user critically injuring herself.**

* * *

 _ **Yami Limiter Two: E%C^$I#UR**_

 **Type: Anti-Fortress**

 **Range: 1-99**

 **Maximum number of Targets: 1000**

 **Rank: A++**

* * *

 _ **Yami Limiter Three: R%o*g &m#ni^d**_

 **Type: ?**

 **Range: ?**

 **Maximum number of Targets: ?**

 **Rank: A+++**

* * *

 _ **Yami Limiter Four: ?**_

 **Type: ?**

 **Range: ?**

 **Maximum number of Targets: ?**

 **Rank: EX**

* * *

 _ **Hikari: Sev &n a#r!ws $f t*e Bi^ D$p#er**_

 **Type: ?  
Range: ?**

 **Maximum number of Targets: ?**

 **Rank: A+++ - EX**


End file.
